Shadows vs Predators
by Light Seeker 001
Summary: Kidnapped and taken to an unfamiliar world, a handful of the Shadow Warriors and a band of human scum are forced to work together to survive a world where only two species exist: prey and Predators.
1. Chapter 1

It didn't have to start out like this. Stuck in a cage. No. They were out in Gotham City fighting a gang of the Joker's goons. On their way home, they felt a sting in their necks and they passed out. And when they awoke, they were in a place with no light. A place with bars in front of them.

Shadow AKA Jayden Warney, leader of the Shadow Warriors banged his fists against the walls, but even with his Adonis powers, nothing could penetrate the walls. It was like the designers of this cage made it impervious to everything he's got. Eventually, he just stopped. Whatever was waiting for him would open the cage. He hoped that he would be prepared for whatever or whoever will the door to his cage. Suddenly, he felt rocking vibrations and he shook. Was he landing? He didn't have time to think about where he was when he was violently ejected from his prison and landed on the soft ground with a thud. Groaning and rubbing his sore head, he took a time to view his surroundings. From what he could tell, he was in a sort of jungle or rain forest, but there was something off about it. He couldn't put a finger on it, but he felt something wrong about this place. Something primal.

"Bruce," he said to the communicator on his head. "Batman. Can you hear me? Can you-" All he heard was static. "Oracle? Barbara, where are you?" Nothing but static. "Hey! Is anyone there!"

There was no answer. Jayden groaned in frustration. It looked like he was on his own. Or was he? All around a line of trees were multiple cages, similar to the one he was in. And that wasn't all. Multiple footprints were walking away from the cages and into the jungle. Human footprints. "Maybe my friends are here," he thought. He didn't want to take any chances. Arming himself with his...wait.

"Where's my gun?" He looked around for his other items. "Where's my costume? Where's my sword? Where's my equip - Oh, there they are." Hanging on a tree nearby was all his equipment and costume. How did it get over there? Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Arming himself with his gun, he slowly followed the footprints, preparing for anyone or anything that might jump down from the trees or pounce at him. As he walked deeper into the jungle, he had a feeling he was being watched. That feeling of being watched by something primal came back to him. Suddenly, caught off guard, he was tackled by an assailant.

The two of them fought for a brief moment until..."Stop! That's Jayden!" A young woman with red hair loomed over him with a distraught look. Alexandra "Ally" Kinsley AKA Breeze, was Jayden's girlfriend. Beside her were four other boys and one girl.

"Marcas? Jason? Flynn! Sam! Max! Sarah!" Also called Red Crosshairs, Dusk, Reaper, Gauntlet, Ronin and Whisper. Shadow's comrades and brothers and sisters in arms group hugged around him. Some laughed happily, others wept with joy.

"What happened?" he asked Breeze after the sentimental moment was over.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I was on my home when I got stung by this." She held out her pocket, revealing a weird looking dart. The other Shadow Warriors pulled out darts from their own pockets as well. "You guys too?" asked Breeze. They all nodded.

"Who would do this to us?" asked Gauntlet, a little afraid.

"Don't know," said Shadow, getting up. "But I know this. We have no way to communicate our other friends, or the Justice League, or anyone else back at Gotham. I think we're on our own."

"No, Jayden," said an unfamiliar voice. From behind a trees were four people, armed with weapons of all sorts. They didn't look friendly. "You're not." said the first, an African American man carrying a machine gun and a machete strapped to his left leg.

"How do you know who we are?" demanded Shadow. He and the other warriors armed themselves, but the man lowered his weapon.

"We did not bring you here. We're prisoners like you. And we heard you say your names, Shadow Warriors."

"Why are you here," demanded Reaper, arming himself with his scythe.

"We were doing our business when we got struck by the same shitters that brought us here," said an Italian woman armed with a large knife.

"What business?" asked Breeze.

"None of your business," an Arabic man with a sniper rifle spat.

"We were brought here for a reason," said Gauntlet. "No one is brought to some jungle wasteland for nothing."

Shadow nodded his head. The feeling returned again. Something primal was watching them. He looked around. Someone or something was nearby. But what?

"Shadow!" He snapped out of his trance when he heard Ally's voice. "Huh?" "I said, what are we going to do with them?"

"Oh, sorry, I spaced out." He looked over at the four strangers. "Well, we're all in the same boat. They can stay, whether we like it or not. But put one toe out of line, all of you!" He pointed at the strangers. "We will shoot you!"

The strangers nodded. "So what do we do?" asked a Mexican man with an Uzi strapped to his belt.

"First, we find shelter," said Shadow. "Then we come up with a plan."

Everyone nodded. As the others prepared themselves, Shadow's feeling returned.

"What's wrong?" asked Reaper. He looked concerned when Shadow looked at him with worry.

"Someone or something is coming," was all he said.

"Who?" asked Reaper. Shadow shook his head.

"I don't know. But whatever it is...it's not human."

**The Shadow Warriors are all properties of their respectable owners.**

**Predator is a property of 20th Century Fox**

**The criminals are my OC's.**


	2. Chapter 2

Traversing through the jungle, the group of prisoners felt uncomfortable being around each other and for good reason. One half of the group consisted of a handful of a team of vigilantes that rivaled the Batman and killed criminals, and the other half was human scum from the looks of them. The perfect definition of what the Shadow Warriors would go after. If not for their current situation, both halves would have attacked each other. For time being, the opposing sides would give each other death glares every now and then. Suddenly, the African American man stopped in his tracks and faced Shadow.

"Look, Jayden," he said. "I just want you to know something." Shadow was all ears. "I don't like you. I don't like your friends, I don't even like the people I sided with. We're all in the same boat, but out here, it's the law of the jungle; survival of the fittest. And if I see any weakness, I will not hesitate to get rid of it."

Shadow glared at him. "We're not savages. We won't stoop to that level. You can do what you want with your side of this little group, but I care for my friends like family. And I won't leave anyone behind. You better learn that well, Mister...uh...what's your name?"

"Mac," was what he said. "I didn't bother to ask the others. At this point, no one can trust anyone."

Shadow nodded. "I'm with you, pal. Come on, we're lagging behind." Mac followed him, keeping up with the others.

000000

At some point, the aura in the jungle changed. Something didn't seem right. The air smelled different, like a butcher's shop. The group didn't know it, but they felt something foreboding. It made them nervous. Something made a clicking sound.

"Duck!" shouted Ronin.

The group hit the deck as a grenade flew from the trees and blew up in a nearby bush, far from them.

"Mio dio," gasped the Italian woman. "Where did that come from? Wait, do you hear something?" It wasn't over. "Hit the deck, everyone!" A barrage of gunfire showered the area, forcing the group to take cover.

"Where is that coming from, Red?!" shouted Shadow?

Red's eyes turned into a pair of crosshairs as he followed the stream of bullets. He pointed to a line of trees. "There!"

Gauntlet followed Red's finger and exhaled a stream of fire in the direction from his hands. The bullets stopped firing as the flames consumed a tree and a line of bushes. "Oh, yeah! Feel the burn, baby!" Whisper slapped him in annoyance. "Ow."

The "bad" people stared at the damage Gauntlet made, then at Gauntlet himself.

"What are you?" asked Mac, a little afraid. "A wizard?"

Gauntlet smiled and laughed. "More like 'demigod if you can call me that. Actually, I'm more along the lines of a super hero. Or anti-hero. Like my friends."

"Shadow Warriors," said the Mexican man. Everyone turned to look at him. "I thought I recognized those costumes. I heard you on the TV back in Tijuana. You are nothing but a group of children who think they can do the greater good by killing criminals left and right. People like us." His already dark glare turned darker as he said these words.

"What makes it your right to judge us," snapped Whisper. "And what have you done that says we can't, chili breath?"

"My name is Raimundo," said the man. "And I don't wish to say more."

No one noticed until too late that Mac was walking toward the scorch marks Gauntlet made.

"What are you doing?" shouted Dusk.

"I want to see who's responsible for this," Mac replied. He disappeared behind a line of burnt bushes. For a while, all was silent. But soon, he the group heard his voice. "Hey, Sam! I think you got him!"

The group raced toward the sound of Mac's voice, eager to see who sent them to this jungle. Soon, they found him, standing over the body of a man, his face frozen in horror. His chest had a gaping hole in his chest. Gauntlet walked over to the corpse and frowned.

"That's him? He's the one who did this? Pathetic!" The Italian woman slapped him in rage. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Idiotta! Now we don't know why he brought us to this jungle!"

"I don't think Sam did this," said the Arabic man. Everyone turned to look at him, kneeling over the corpse.

"How do you know that?" asked Reaper, confused. "Are you a doctor?"

The man nodded. "Yes, Flynn. And," he pointed to the hole in the corpse's chest. "This wound was not caused by Sam's fire. It if was, it would have caused third to fourth degree burns. Second, this wound was caused by something that would have gone straight through the body, cauterized the wound and killed this poor bastard instantly."

Everyone pondered on this. Shadow's uneasy feeling returned to him.

"So," started Raimundo. "Someone else did this? I wonder who?"

"I don't know," replied the Arabic doctor. "But, I do know this. This isn't the one that brought us here." He pointed to the eyes and the pale skin of the corpse. "You see this? He's been decomposing for some time now. Probably over a month." He stuck his hand in the man's pocket, pulling out a wallet. "Hmm," he said, looking at the man's ID. "It says here he's a US marine. Whoever killed this man must have been quite skilled."

"Then, the grenade, the guns?" asked Breeze, afraid. She looked behind her. "I wonder..." She looked over at Shadow. "Can you look for anything that would have caused those weapons to go off?"

"Wait here," he said. "I'll be back." He walked away from the group.

"So, doc," started Red. "Why would a man of medicals such as yourself be here?"

"It's Muhammad, and sorry, Marcas," replied the doctor. "But you'd hate me if I told you."

"Oh, don't worry. I hated you from the moment I saw you and the rest of your group."

"I'm back," Shadow's voice rang out. "And I found these." In Shadow's hand was a set of strings.

"What are they?" asked Dusk.

"Tripwires," replied Shadow. "That proves my suspicion. Whoever this marine was trying to kill it wasn't us. It was whoever was after him."

"But who?"

Shadow shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know."

No one noticed the robotic bird hovering in the canopy, spying on them. Silently, it flew in another direction, returning to the ones who have been watching the group. The hunt was on.


	3. Chapter 3

At this point, the group of disgruntled misfits were all on edge. Someone was going after them, but for reasons unknown. Shadow's feeling was growing even more. He even mentioned to Reaper that it wasn't a human that was watching their every move. He didn't know what it was. That's what bothered him the most. He was familiar with aliens like Sinestro, Blackfire and even Nekron, but whatever was watching him, his friends and his "other friends" was doing something very few had done: scared him. He didn't want to admit it, especially in front of Breeze. His thoughts were interrupted by an ear piercing scream. It was not from one of his friends.

"Did anyone of you scream?" he asked the criminals. They all shook their heads.

Then, suddenly, the group heard something shaking in nearby bushes. Gripping their weapons, they readied themselves for whatever was coming for them. What came out startled them. A young man, probably in his early twenties, garbed in a military uniform and gripping a colt pistol came running out of the bushes, soaked in blood and wide eyed. He bumped into Whisper and he screamed. She grabbed him by the arms and shook him.

"Hey, calm down! Calm down, you - Oof!"

The man kicked her in the stomach and continued running, but was tackled by Mac. The man screamed, sobbed and started shouting, "They'llkillme!They'llkillme!They'llkillme!They'll killme!They'llkillme!They'llkillme!" Mac slapped him hard in the face and picked him up, lifting him off the ground.

"Shut your bawling and calm down!" he shouted.

Everyone heard a strange sound, like water leaking from a pipe. Mac realized it was coming from the man. A dark stain had formed in his pants. Mac dropped him in disgust. Breeze glared at Mac, then walked over to the broken stranger and gently wiped the blood off his face with her sleeve. The poor thing was red in the face, and not because he was soaked in blood. He hugged Breeze, weeping bitterly. She returned the hug.

"Shh," she whispered. "It's alright. We won't hurt you." She was like a mother comforting a scared child. It took a few minutes, but the man's rapid breathing slowed down and he stopped crying. He hiccuped occasionally. This new discovery disturbed Shadow. He was used to seeing people begging for mercy whenever they're in the hands of a dangerous thug or if he was the one that was doing the damage to a criminal, but the feeling that was bugging him now made him uneasy. After some time, Breeze finally spoke to the sniffling man, still speaking in her motherly voice.

"Who are you?"

"P-P-P-P-Private W-W-W-Will of Reaper Squadron."

"Why are you here?"

Will tightened his grip on her. He didn't want to talk about it obviously. Shadow gently walked toward the two.

"We were brought here too, you know. Me and my friends and...my acquaintances. And obviously by the same person who took you and your squadron."

"It wasn't a person," Will said, eyes red with tears. "They weren't people. They were savages."

"What happened to you?" asked Breeze.

"We-we were patrolling a part of Somalia. My squadron and I. We were sent to put an end to a string of piracy going on. This particular pirate crew was more viscous than the ones the Marines normally arrested. We-we-were sent to put a stop to them. They fought back. We had no choice. That's when we were taken by those...THOSE HORRIBLE FUCKING SAVAGES!"

He started wailing again and Breeze did her best to comfort him. "It'll be okay."

"NO IT ISN'T!" he shouted, backing away from her. "THEY KILLED THEM ALL! THEY HUNTED US DOWN LIKE ANIMALS! I'M THE ONLY ONE LEFT!"

The Shadow Warriors and the criminals' eyes widened. What kind of humans were this vicious?

"They took their bodies! I don't know what they did to them!"

Breeze walked over to him. "What were they?"

Before Will could respond, there came a soft growl. His eyes widened as he gripped his gun in fear. "No. No, no, no, no! They found me!"

Out of the bushes came a pack of animals that the Shadow Warriors and the criminals were unfamiliar with. They looked like monstrous wolf/bear hybrids with no fur, dark pinkish-red skin and probably stood about 5 feet fall. Shadow counted the animals as they surrounded them. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven.

"Eleven of them," he said to his friends and acquaintances. "There's enough for everyone."

"I'm with you." replied Dusk.

"Yep!" agreed Breeze.

"Yeah." hissed Whisper.

"Bring it on!" challenged Gauntlet.

"This will be cake." said Reaper.

"I've seen better." said Red Crosshairs.

The acquaintances said nothing and armed themselves with their weapons. The animals charged and selected their individual prey.

0000

Shadow didn't bother charging his Adonis. He simply chose his weapons to take down the beast that was charging him. He leaped over it, and sliced into its flesh with his katana as he landed behind it. To his amazement, it barely left a scratch on its skin. The beast charged again, leaping into the air. Shadow raised his guns and fired at its heart. To his horror, they bounced off like its skin was made of bullet-proof vests. It slashed him, leaving huge claw marks across his chest. Shadow had to change tactics or else not even his healing powers could save him. Then he remembered something from his years of training.

"Aim for the soft spots," he muttered. "Alright. Come at me, mutt!"

Getting up to his feet, Shadow motioned the beast to come after him. It replied with a roar and lunged. Like before, Shadow jumped over the beast, but this time, he sliced it in the eye balls, blinding it. The beast roared in pain as it spun around, trying to rub the blood out of its now damaged eyes.

"Go for their eyes!" he shouted at the other Warriors. They nodded and changed their tactics.

Shadow was sure he had won, when a sharp pain sent him flying. The blind beast was charging at him, slashing at his direction.

"What?! You're blind! How can you..." He mentally slapped himself. "Of course! You can still smell and hear me!"

No holding back. Putting his weapons away, he activated his Adonis power and fired electricity at the creature. The beast staggered a little, but resumed charging.

"Damn! You're immune to electricity too?! Guess I have to get close and personal."

As the beast charged with its mouth wide open, Shadow grabbed it with both hands and tossed it into a line of trees. Dazed, the creature tried to get back up, but was unprepared for the kick Shadow delivered to its face. Groaning, the beast tried once more for an attack, but Shadow punched it hard in the gut, sending it flying up to the canopy. As Shadow smiled at his opponent's flight, he saw something in the tree tops and his eyes widened with horror.

"Who-who did this?!"

He snapped out of his trance when the beast landed with a thud. Back to business. But it disappeared, whimpering like a scared dog. Well, thought Shadow. How are the others doing?

0000

"Damn! Bullets don't hurt this thing!" Dusk had given up using his tonfas and tried using his guns, but they didn't do any good. Upon hearing Shadow's words to aim for the eyes, he opened fire. He thought he had won until it came back at him, smelling his sent and hearing his every move.

"Now what?" he groaned.

Then he had an idea. He allowed the beast to charge at him, but he grabbed his guns and fired point blank into the sharp-toothed filled mouth. The bullets went down the throat and into the lungs and heart. The beast dropped dead to his feet.

0000

Breeze was in deep trouble. The creature she was facing must have heard Shadow's words as it swiped the pistol away from her hand. She had to use her other weapons for this one. Opening her fan, she sent powerful winds towards the creature. Trees were uprooted, bushes lost their leaves and the very earth itself started to crumble. But the beast dug its claws deep into the earth as it slowly crawled its way towards her. Breeze had nothing to worry so far. All she had to do was keep her air-based powers on the beast as she walked over to her gun. Suddenly, she heard something rumbling. To her shock, the beast curled up like a rolly-polly bug and was rolling straight for her, fighting against the strong winds.

"Fuck!"

Quickly grabbing the gun, Breeze jumped out of the way just in time for the beast to crash into a tree. This was a smart one. All she had to do was keep her eyes trained on the eyes. Shaking its head, it charged towards her. She flew up into the air and landed right behind it. She had a new strategy now. Like before, she opened her fan and blasted strong winds at the beast, and again it curled up into a ball and rolled for her, fighting against the strong winds. She repeated these movements again and again. She noticed that her opponent's movements were getting slower as she blew the winds again and again. Now was her chance. With one fire of her gun, she struck an eye ball and the beast died almost immediately.

0000

Gauntlet had a little less difficulty than the others. He fired his guns at the beast's eyes, and skin, but was shocked to find that even his guns did little effect.

"Time to turn up the heat," he muttered.

Opening his palms, he blasted fire so hot, you'd think you were on the sun. The beast thought so. All that was left was a charred skeleton.

"It's good to be the fire demigod," he smiled.

0000

Ronin open fired at the eyes of his opponent, but he wasn't done yet. Dodging the swinging slashes, he dug his sword into his opponent's neck and leaped onto its back. Riding it like a horse, he steered the creature into trees, and rocks, all the while stabbing his steer repeatedly. Finally, he decided to put the monster out of its misery. With one final jab, the beast was decapitated and Ronin jumped off the rolling corpse.

0000

Reaper and Whisper were back to back as their opponents circled them.

"Got a plan?" asked Reaper.

"Yeah. Don't die." was all Whisper responded.

Reaper face-palmed himself. "Please be detailed."

"Okay. DUCK!"

They both dropped to the ground as the animals leaped into each other, bumping themselves in the face and landing to the ground. Dazed, they both got up, but Whisper was already on the back of one of them, stabbing viciously while Reaper made short work of his opponent, slicing into its head and firing repeatedly into the eye socket. Smiling, he looked over at Whisper, now holding on for dear life.

"Playing rodeo, are you, Sarah?"

"Oh, shut up!" she snapped.

She lifted her hand holding the large knife and stabbed the beast deep in the eye. It roared, then dropped dead when Whisper ripped out its eye. She wiped the blood clean off her knife. She said, "Wonder if Red is doing any..."

A dead beast dropped to the floor.

"Never mind."

0000

Shadow walked over to the criminals who where having a little trouble fighting off their own beasts. The Italian woman, whose name Shadow found out was Maria, was on top of one beasts, stabbing it in the eye repeatedly. Mohammed was shooting his sniper rifle directly into the mouth of another. Raimundo was slicing off his own beast's head with his machetes. And Mac fired at his beast in the mouth. As soon as their beasts were all dead, Shadow walked over to Mac.

"Are you okay?"

Mac nodded his head, brushing himself off. He looked around at the group members, making a head count. He realized something wrong.

"Hey, where's skinny Willie?"

Everyone looked around frantically.

"Oh, hell." groaned Reaper. "He must have run off while we were fighting!"

Suddenly, there were shots of gunfire and an ear piercing scream. The group rushed towards the sound, but they immediately stopped and stared in horror. They found Will, but his skull and spinal cord was ripped out from his body.

"Who-who-who did this?!" shouted Gauntlet. Never in his life had he seen anything so brutal. He noticed Mac looking up at the sky. "What's wrong?"

"Those monsters must have hit me hard," he said. "I'm seeing three moons!"

Everyone looked up and saw exactly what he was seeing.

"We're on an alien world?!" shouted Raimundo.

"Maybe we're on the prison planet again?" suggested Reaper.

"No," replied Gauntlet. "This place is too primal. The other planet was full with an evil aura."

"And one more thing," said Shadow, walking over to a large tree. "This is not a prison. It's a game reserve."

Those two words made everyone's heart jump. "Wh-wh-what makes you say that?" asked Dusk.

In response, Shadow punched the tree with all his might, shaking it. Multiple red objects hanging on ropes fell down and abruptly stopped when their ropes reached their limits. Gauntlet, Raimundo, Breeze and Whisper screamed in horror. Maria upchucked while the others looked on in horror. The objects were skinned corpses, muscles and organs all exposed. Flies buzzed furiously as their dinner was disturbed. Despite being skinned, the corpses had looks of horror frozen on their faces. As Shadow stared in horror, he noticed that some of the corpses were not even human. In fact, if he looked closely, he could see Green Lantern rings on their fingers.

"You think those beasts..." started Shadow.

"No." Everyone looked over at Ronin when he said that. "Those were just the dogs. Whatever killed Will and strung up these bodies were the hunters."

The feeling of being watched by something primal returned to Shadow with far greater density. Something was indeed hunting them and for game. Shadow had to get everyone off this planet, or they will join the corpses that were hanging on the tree.

0000

Elsewhere, three blooded hunters had finished reviewing the video footage their probe had sent them. The humans had proven to be more of a challenge than before. Perhaps more than the marines that provided a formidable and impressive, but futile attempt to fend them off. As one of his comrades cleaned off the remaining bits of flesh and blood off the freshly plucked skull and spinal cord and attached it to his belt, the leader's eyes focused on the humans. Four of them proved to have more potential, yet seven of them had abilities he had seen only amongst fellow Yautja. Some even possessed supernatural abilities. He knew he and his comrades found true potential. He had seen many extraterrestrials with amazing abilities before, but none of them had the same sense of brutality of a Yautja...until now. However, they didn't want to face the humans or even the meta-humans now. They were tired from their fight with the hounds they had sent to test their strength, agility and stamina. They all passed with flying colors. But for now, all the hunters could do now was follow them and wait for their strength to return. With those shared thoughts, the hunters activated their camouflage gear and vanished into the jungle.


	4. Chapter 4

Finding a spot underneath a large alien tree, the group decided to take shelter for the night. Gauntlet blocked the entrance with a large boulder to prevent whatever was hunting them from seeing them. He offered to make a fire, but there were two risks: the smoke might choke them out and something might find them if it sees said smoke. Shadow took out a large glow stick from his utility belt and cracked it on, creating a beautiful green glow that illuminated the whole place.

"Well," muttered Reaper. "Now what do we do?"

Shadow thought it over for some time now, but then he sighed in defeat. "I have no idea."

The Shadow Warriors sputtered in shock.

"I'm sorry," he continued. "We have no way to contact anyone, and we have no way to get off this jungle planet. And to top it all off, we have someone chasing after us!"

Breeze slapped him square in the face. "We never gave up when Hush kidnapped a majority of us and brainwashed us! We never gave up when Light banished us to the Prison Planet." She inched closer to his face as he tried to back away from her in fear. "And we never gave up when Trigon possessed you."

Shadow gulped a little; a chill ran down his spine when he was reminded of that dreadful encounter with Trigon. It was something so traumatizing, he never really wanted to talk about it. "Don't remind me," he shuddered.

"You are strange people," commented Mac, who along with the other convicts, was overhearing the Warriors' conversation.

"Well, when you're having the life of a super hero," said Shadow with a smile. "Your life will be strange."

"Yeah," muttered Maria. "A lot stranger than mine."

"How was your life?" asked Whisper. Maria said nothing. "You'll come around."

"Like that will happen."

"So," said Mac. "Who's going to be on lookout duty?"

Everyone was silent.

"Red, you're up," decided Shadow.

"What?! Uh-uh! No way!"

Shadow convinced him after lifting him off the ground and hissed, "Get your ass out there!"

Red gulped. "How about a vote?" Shadow tossed him out of the tree entrance. Mohammed casually walked out the door.

"Don't throw me," he said. "I know how to work a sniper rifle. I can work fine with Marcas."

After Shadow closed the opening (but left enough room for the two outside to walk back in), he went back to the group. Raimundo was digging something out of his pocket. It looked like he had pulled out a can containing something black. In the darkness, he couldn't see what it was, but when he took his seat around the glow stick, he could see, to his disgust, it was chewing tobacco. He offered some to Maria, but she refused. So, he offered some to Whisper.

"Get that stinking shit out of my face!" she squealed with disgust.

He looked around, but no one was willing to accept his share. Everyone had looks of disgust on their faces, much to Raimundo's disappointment.

He grunted, "Bunch of slack jawed faggots around here. This stuff will make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus! Just like me!"

"Yeah, strap this on your sore ass." said Gauntlet. Everyone laughed.

"You'll see, Sammy! In my hometown, chicks will follow you around with your strong jaws and smooth lips-" He paused to spit at a nearby rock. Everyone groaned.

"Your foul breath and rotting teeth?" asked Gauntlet, trying his best not to barf.

Meanwhile, Reaper looked over at Mac's machine gun that was currently leaning on a rock. It was nothing like any model he had ever seen before. He was so busy ogling its splendor that he didn't notice Mac smiling. "Like what what you see?" he asked, startling Reaper.

"God, don't scare me like that!"

Mac laughed, "I thought Shadow Warriors were supposed to be brave!"

"We are. You just caught me by surprise." He cleared his throat, then asked, "Where did you get this? This is no model like any I ever saw."

"That's because it's a one of a kind. I made it myself."

Reaper awed in marvel. "Wow! That must have been quite a struggle, putting all those pieces together!"

"Not really. I've been making my own weapons since I was in college. For the military, you know."

"Really? What service?"

"Not really a service. More like a business."

"What kind of business?"

Mac paused. "The kind you don't want to poke your nose in. Like now."

"Sorry."

0000

Maria was sharpening her large dagger while everyone laughed at the "sore ass" joke Whisper just made. She felt a presence over her shoulder.

"It's rude to stare, Ally."

Breeze was taken back by what she said. "I was just...wondering what a girl like you is involved with criminals like...them." She pointed at the men.

"I'm not what you call a miss goody-two-shoes."

Breeze understood. "You did something bad, didn't you?"

Maria laughed, "Doing something bad is my job!"

"And what job is that?" Maria said nothing and moved away from her. "One of these days..."

0000

Outside, Red Crosshairs and Mohammed scanned the area, keeping an eye out for...well, anything that looks threatening. Animals usually come out at night, especially carnivores, and in this strange alien world, they didn't want to take any chances. From what Red had seen so far, Mohammed showed professional sniper skills even for a doctor, but he didn't match with his own level of sniper expertise.

"Say," he asked. "Where did you learn to use that thing?"

"I trained myself during the Taliban attacks," the doctor replied. "Had to protect my patients somehow, didn't I?"

"Well, I had a hard life too. I pretty much learned how to fight all my life. I blame my dad."

Mohammed looked over at him. "He did something bad, didn't he?" Red nodded his head. "I know you don't want to talk about it."

"Nope. It's best if we keep about our pasts to ourselves. Especially since you know mine and my friends' names."

"Just your first names. Not your whole names." Mohammed sniffed before continuing, "Besides, who can I reveal your identities to out here? No one gives a shit about who you are out here."

He was right. Why worry about what he was going to do with them? Then he realized, "What if we get back to earth and you spill the beans?"

The doctor shook his head. "We only know you as Jayden, Jason, Alexandra, Marcas, Sam, Flynn and Sarah. Not exactly uncommon names. It's probably going to take a long time for people to figure out which of those names match the Shadow Warriors."

"Trust me," whispered Red. "There are those who are quick to figure it out. And to prevent people from knowing the truth, we kill them."

"Are you going to do that?" The doctor was the least bit afraid.

Red shook his head. "No. We're all in the same boat. We have to work together."

"That sounds legit. Shh!"

"I didn't say anything." He was shushed again. "What is wrong with you?" The doctor slapped him.

"Would you shut up?!" he whispered angrily. "We aren't alone!"

The two of them looked around frantically. Nothing was in sight. Whatever Mohammed was sensing, it was starting to make Red get on edge, and it was rare for someone to get under his skin like right now. Suddenly, out of the blue, bolts of plasma shot right at them, blasting the tree and the ground around them.

"Where are they coming from?!" shouted Red.

He couldn't get a beading on the attackers, but he knew that they were here! Shadow and the others burst out of the tree and looked around.

"Who's firing?!" shouted Breeze, barely missing a blast that was inches at her left foot.

"We have to go, now!" shouted Red. "We underestimated these guys!"

Shadow wanted to argue, but a plasma bolt that missed him just by inches changed his mind. "Run for your lives!"

0000

"Whatever happened to fighting the enemy?!" shouted Dusk to Shadow, leaping over a log, just missing being hit by another plasma bolt.

"We don't even know how to fight them! If we had Thanatos with us he might be able to see where they are!"

"Yeah, well, he ain't!" screamed Whisper. Part of her hat burnt off when a plasma bolt aimed for her head flew by.

"Scatter! They can't pick us all off!" shouted Mac.

"No!" shouted Whisper. "They'll hunt us down one by one!"

"Stop!"

Everyone froze to a grinding halt. They had just ran to the edge of a cliff, with nothing to cushion any fall except for a stream of water. But they were so high up, they couldn't tell how deep or shallow it was.

"Damn!" cursed Reaper. "They planned this! They planned on cornering us!"

Everyone heard footsteps heading towards them. They looked down. Shadow lifted one foot and placed it over the edge.

"Don't do it," said Breeze. "You don't know what's down there!"

"Five bucks says we live," said Gauntlet to Raimundo.

"Ten says we don't."

A plasma bolt flew over everyone's heads.

"You're on!" shouted Gauntlet, leaping over the edge with Rai.

Whisper shook her head. "We're all gonna die."

"We're all dead, either way," muttered Maria. "That's why..." She pushed her in. Ignoring her cursing, Maria responded, "You test how deep it is!" Breeze pushed her in.

"Now what?" demanded Red. He looked behind him, seeing that the invisible shooter was coming closer. "Fuck it. Everyone jump!"

Everyone jumped into the unknown except for Breeze and Shadow.

"What's wrong?" asked Shadow.

"I don't know what's worse; ending up like Will, or crashing in possibly shallow water and/or landing on sharp rocks."

"I think I'll take my chances with the water instead of the - AAAAAAHHHH!"

Shadow pushed Breeze into the water as he screamed. Something dragged him away from the cliff and pushed him to the ground.

"Who-who are you?!" he shouted. No one answered. "I know you're out there! Show your face you coward!"

The attacker appeared out of thin air, surprising him and making him land on his rear. It looked like a large, muscular man with dreadlocks, but its yellowish green skin made it clear that it wasn't human. It stood between six to seven feet tall, wore a faceplate with a partial helmet over the top of the head, body armor (a chest guard, pauldrons, vambraces and greaves), leather sandals, and had a small cannon mounted on its left shoulder. Strapped around its belt were multiple skulls, some of them not even human. The alien made a low, chattering croaking sound as it looked Shadow over. What sort of surprises would this prey reveal?

"My god," groaned Shadow, his eyes focused on the skulls. "You did it, didn't you? You killed Will!" The hunter nodded. "Why? He was scared shitless! Do you just kill other aliens for the hell of it?!" It shook its head. "Then why?! Why do you do it?!"

Twin five inch long blades popped out of one of the gauntlets the alien wore.

"Not going to happen," growled Shadow, taking out his sword.

The two clashed their blades against each other. Shadow slashed out at the hunter in anger, but was pushed to the ground when it shoved him aside. He got back up and charged. The blades met, and Shadow tried to gain the upper hand. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh. The hunter slid between his legs, cutting them in the process. But Shadow was still standing. The alien seemed impressed with this.

"You like a good challenge?" snarled Shadow. "Let's see how you like this!"

He pulled out his pistol and aimed at the alien's head. A laser beamed out of the helmet's side, targeting the gun in his hand. The shoulder cannon fired at the pistol, blasting it out of Shadow's hand. He yelped in pain a little as he felt the burning sensation get worse with every second.

"Fine. I'll use my sword!"

The two fighters clashed blades again, neither one of them hitting flesh. The hunter and the warrior pushed their blades against one another, forming a reverse tug-o-war. Groaning, Shadow pumped up a little of the Adonis into his veins. Suddenly he fell onto his face; the hunter saw this as a perfect distraction and slashed him across the chest. Heaving, Shadow watched as it advanced towards him. Red was right. The Shadow Warriors underestimated these guys. His eyes then turned to the cliff edge, then smiled.

"I am not planning on dying today, pal. Later!"

With lightning fast reflexes, he dashed towards the cliff and dove into the water. The hunter looked down into the chasm and smiled under his face plate. He knew the prey would survive. He looked for another way down, then vanished into the jungle.

0000

Down below, Shadow sputtered and coughed as he swam to the shore. Thank goodness the water was at deep enough for him to survive. He wiped water out of his face, looking around for the hunter, but no such luck thank goodness. Thanks to his Adonis healing, the burns on his hand and the slash across his chest quickly healed, not even leaving a scar. Still, now he knew these alien hunters were no pushovers. He'll have to be more careful from now on. Suddenly, he felt a presence, but a familiar one. It was Breeze, handing his gun over to him.

"Thanks. Everyone here?"

Breeze, Dusk, Reaper, Ronin, Whisper, Gauntlet, Red Crosshairs, Mac, Maria, Mohammed, and Raimundo. Yep, everyone's all here.

"You lose," chuckled Gauntlet, holding out a hand.

Raimundo handed over a ten dollar bill to him.

"It's not over," said an unfamiliar voice.

Everyone spun around to see...oh, no! One of the aliens! No. It removed its mask revealing...an elderly man. His white hair was brittle and shaggy, dark circles were under his eyes, like he had not slept in a long time, and wore dirty rags underneath the alien armor.

"I caught your scent," he said in a crazy voice. "And if I could, so could they."

"Who are you?!" shouted Mac.

"The guy saving your asses. Now, you can or can't trust me. I don't really care. But I know this jungle more than the back of my hand. I should know; I've been here for fifty years." He laughed crazily. "They haven't found me yet!" As he continued laughing, everyone was left unsure of what to make of this crazy old coot. Fifty years, huh? Who was he? And how did he survive this long?


	5. Chapter 5

As the peculiar group followed the strange old man, their hearts were still racing. They were attacked by whoever killed Will, and now it was after them. But why? Did it kill other species just for the hell of it? Was this all just a sport to it? Shadow's eyes were unfocused and afraid, as Breeze noticed. He encountered it, and when he described what the alien hunter looked like, the old man laughed.

"You fought one of them, eh, boy?!" He laughed again. "Well, that is sure to get the others' attention now!"

The others froze. "Others?" they said in unison.

"Oh, yes," said the old man. "They always come in groups of three. However, they split up and go their separate ways once the hunt begins. One of them will take its pick, and if he dies, the others will take a chance. They won't stop until they hunt you down one by one!" He laughed again, his words sending a shiver down each man and woman's spine.

"Has anyone ever killed these freaks?" asked Maria.

The old man stopped laughing. "Yes." His voice tone was now serious. "I have seen them being praised by the superiors; the chiefs. They are considered the lucky ones. They live...but they don't get off this world." Everyone's hopes were dashed.

"Has anyone left?" asked Breeze desperately.

The old man shook his head. "I wouldn't know even if they did. I don't know how to fly one of those savages' ships! I'm to scared to go anywhere near those things." Breeze's fists shook in anger. "I heard rumors of a human colony somewhere on this planet, but I never went to see for myself."

"Then, where are we going?" demanded Red angrily.

"My shelter. They haven't found me yet. I guess no hunter wants to go after a weak, small old man."

Shadow shook his head. "Any old man who has lived as long as you would never be weak in my eyes. And I'm certain not in those hunters' eyes."

"We'll see."

0000

The group paused to take a breather in a cave. They had so many questions to ask the old man!

"You know so much about these things, right?" asked Breeze to the old man. "How did they find us so fast?"

"Ah, that's one of their tricks. Those helmets allow them to see through anything. They can even locate a living creature by detecting their heat signatures. No matter how well you think you are hidden, they will never stop hunting you. And they will hide from you if they feel like stalking you with their cloaking devices."

Breeze gulped. Images in her mind flashed before her. Images of the hunters decapitating her and skinning her friends and hanging them on a tree.

"How did you get here anyway, old man?" asked Mac.

"My name is Rudolph."

Gauntlet looked him over. "You don't have a red nose." Nobody laughed.

"Like I didn't hear that one before," the old man replied sarcastically. "Anyway, I was the leader of a platoon of one of the best soldiers during World War II. We were knocked out by those darts, and we woke up in these damned jungle. We stood no chance against them. One by one, they slaughtered my friends. All 10 of them. I'm the only one left." He laughed crazily. That was getting annoying.

"Then..." began Shadow. But he never finished the sentence. That sentence meant giving up and adapting to their new home. Batman and Talia would be ashamed if he did such a thing. "Then all we have to do is take one of them alive and make them drive one of those ships back to earth!"

"If they understand English," muttered Whisper. "Do they understand human languages?"

"Possible," commented Shadow. "I demanded the one I met if he killed Will for the hell of it. He shook his head."

"Well," replied Reaper sarcastically. "What are we gonna do? Walk up to one of them, capture it and ask it if we could take a ship?"

"Well...yes."

Everyone was silent.

"That. Is. The. Dumbest. Plan. You. Ever. Made." said Dusk.

"What, do you have any ideas?" Shadow demanded, glaring at his brother. "Do we just stay in this jungle and become crazy like this old coot?!" He pointed to Rudolph.

"Hey!"

"I do not plan on living off the land like some hermit! I want to see cities again! Brain-numbing television! A taste of whiskey touching my lips! And...I want to see my little brother's smiling face."

The Shadow Warriors knew he was talking about Damian. No point arguing with him now.

"Fine. It's your funeral," commented the old man.

"Hold on," called out Mohammed. "Don't we have a say in this?" He gestured to the three criminals.

"Well?" asked Reaper. "What do you want to say?"

"We can't take any chances. Why waste your time trying to talk with those savages when all they want to do is hunt is down? We have to kill them after our interrogation."

"Like that will get us anywhere," laughed Gauntlet.

"It won't hurt to try."

"Consider it payback for killing Will," muttered Maria.

"Aw, are you starting to care?" mocked Whisper.

"What was that, little puttana?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"QUIET!"

Everyone turned to Shadow. "God, what are we, a bunch of kids at a playground? We're all survivors! And we don't go on separate ways!" He turned to Mac's side. "We'll do our suggestion first. But if it goes wrong, we will have no choice." Mac and his group nodded.

"Well," said Rudolph, laughing as always. "Break time's over! Let's get goin'!" He laughed again.

"I wish he would stop that," cursed Maria.

0000

The sniper detected a trace of body heat far greater than an average human's. Learning that the group had a boy with fire abilities, they certainly stuck out like a sore thumb. He was not going to miss them. He aimed at the boy's heat signature, pulled the trigger and fired.

0000

Gauntlet heard something strange. He instinctively knew what it was. "Get down!"

The blast that came from the plasma bolt shook the cave. What came next did not come from a weapon. It was a loud rumbling sound that shook the whole cave even more violent than the plasma blast.

"Rock slide!"

Everyone made a mad dash towards the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, Whisper lost sight of everyone when she ducked to avoid a large rock. Meanwhile, Maria felt a sharp pain to her thigh when a large rock fell down on top of her leg. Whisper paused. It would have been better to leave her to die and slow the hunters down.

"_No! Don't think that_!" shouted Sarah.

"Why not?" demanded Whisper in her mind. "She's bad news! Besides, if we save her, what are the chances of us being buried?!"

"_I'd rather be buried alive with someone I tried to save rather than leave her to die_!"

"Well, you...you...you! Oh, fuck it!" Since when did you grow a conscious, Whisper? Rushing towards the Italian woman, she jumped, dodged and ducked under falling rocks as she made her way to her goal. With all her strength, she began pushing the boulder.

"Che cosa stai facendo, puttana?!" Maria cursed in Italian.

"Salvare il culo Italiano! Ora spostare!" shouted Whisper back in Italian. With all her might, she pushed the boulder off Maria's leg and shoved her to get moving. Just as they finally escaped the falling rocks, more plasma bolts came out of the trees and fired at them.

"Whisper, the trees!"

Whisper followed Maria's directions and used her guns to fire at the shooter...wherever that might be. Whisper panicked a little. She wasn't used to monsters like these. Then she remembered something her mentor, the Question told her.

"_Trust not your eyes. Listen to what's necessary_."

She cleared out the noises of the jungle and concentrated on one thing: the sound of any non-foreign noises like a gun cocking or a branch breaking. There was a faint beeping sound.

"South west!" she shouted, firing her pistols at a nearby set of trees. Leaves rustled as the sounds of footsteps echoed in her ears. "Gotcha!" She fired her pistols once more at the trees. Suddenly, the ground shook with a thud. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was there. At last, Whisper and Maria got a good look at the alien as it appeared before their eyes a few feet away. It looked exactly how Shadow had described it, except they could tell that it was not the same one that attacked him. This one had a helmet shaped like a falcon's head and it wore lighter armor. And instead of a single shoulder cannon, it had two. As the girls watched, the sniper pulled the two shoulder cannons off and joined them together to form a rifle.

"Clever little sneak," chuckled Maria.

The sniper jumped into the trees and took aim at the two. The two of them dodged the plasma bolts, but every time they thought they had the sniper on the run, it would leap to another tree and fire at them. Then suddenly, he jumped down and broke the rifle into two separate cannons.

"Here he comes!"

The sniper opened fired at the two, forcing them to duck and cover. Suddenly, Whisper slowly got back up and took out her own gun.

"Let's go," she growled.

The sniper roared in acceptance. Whisper roared back. The two of them circled each other for a few minutes before Whisper open fired at her opponent. He ducked and dodged a few rounds before firing back at her. One plasma bolt came so close to her, she had to limbo lean back to dodge. She fell on her back, but rolled out of the way of more plasma bolts. Snarling, the sniper leaped back into the trees and formed the rifle once more.

"Coward!" called out Whisper. "Uh, oh!" More plasma bolts shot at her, forcing her to dodge. Note to self, don't call these guys cowards. The sniper resumed firing at the girl, careful not to damage her body too badly. He didn't want to ruin the hide. Finally, a plasma bolt made its mark, striking the girl in the leg. She fell down, screaming bloody murder. Now to end this. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh and lost his balance. He fell down to the jungle floor with a thud. Looking up, he saw the other woman, sitting in his perch and smiling wickedly. Her knife was soaked in a green glowing substance. His blood. As the woman jumped down to the ground, the sniper got back on his feet.

"Clever little sneak."

Maria stood still with a look of shock when she heard her own voice coming out of the alien's mouth. She shook it off and readied herself with her knife. Then she realized something.

"Bringing a knife to a gun fight. Where's the fairness in that?!"

It seemed that the alien was agreeing, as it was now modifying the weapon again. As Maria watched, the barrel was folded into a handle, and the butt of the rifle became a club head; the new weapon reminded her of a Native American gun stock war club. Maria gulped a little. Even though they both now had melee weapons, the sniper still had an advantage. His war club was bigger than her knife and definitely a lot heavier. And he was more muscular than the skinny woman, so she won't have the ability to flatten him on his back. Nevertheless, she prepared herself for the worst.

"Let's go," said the sniper in Whisper's voice.

"That's creepy," Maria commented. "Don't do that again."

The two clashed their weapons against each other, but it was obvious that the sniper had the upper hand. With a shove, Maria fell flat on her back. Quickly, she got up, looking for a change in tactics. Then she decided to use her small size against him. Charging, Maria suddenly grabbed her opponent by the arm and jumped onto his shoulders, and proceeded stabbing him in the neck. Suddenly, the wind was knocked right out of her; the sniper deliberately fell backwards and crashed her to the floor with great force. Maria wheezed and coughed up blood. The sniper had to admit, she and her companion was skilled. But it's time to end it. He walked over to the younger girl and unsheathed his wrist blade. He could tell that she wouldn't last in this jungle with her injured leg and the open wound it now possessed would make her her vulnerable to infection. He was going to make this quick and painless and end her suffering.

"OY!"

Something blasted him in the side and sent him flying. Gauntlet walked out of the bushes, pistol in hand. "Stay away from my friends!" He turned his attention to Whisper and Maria. "Oh, god, Whisper, you're bleeding!"

"I ain't got time to bleed," she muttered.

"What am I chopped liver?!" shouted Maria.

"Oh, stop making such a fuss, you can move."

Cursing in Italian, Maria slowly got to her feet as Gauntlet slowly lifted her wounded friend and carried her off bridal style. She needed medical attention and fast, otherwise, there might be a chance that she will lose her leg.


	6. Chapter 6

"What happened?!" shouted Shadow frantically. Gauntlet was carrying Whisper, her leg now possessing a gaping, cauterized hole.

"The hunters," Gauntlet growled. "They shot her down!"

"I have something that might heal her!" shouted Rudolph. "It's at my shelter! Come on! It's not much further now!"

0000

Rudolph's shelter was an underground shack that he must have constructed by himself. It must have taken years to built it.

"Actually, it took my one year," he confirmed, laughing.

Inside was a network of tunnels that led to separate rooms. The main room the group was in now was basically a sitting room with an armory of multiple alien weapons and armor, no doubt belonging to the hunters. Shadow, Whisper and Maria immediately recognized the shoulder cannons and the helmets. What caught Shadow's attention however, was what was sitting on the top of a bookshelf: an alien skull. It was elongated and cylindrical in shape and its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. As Shadow stared at its empty eye sockets, he felt something wrong. This wasn't like the feeling he had when he first ventured into this world, when he felt something primal was watching him. What he felt as he stared at the artifact was...fear. He didn't know why, but there was something evil about this skull that made him want to not meet whatever species possessed it.

"You lot come and restrain her!"

Rudolph's voice snapped him out of his trance. He turned around swiftly to see Whisper being held down by Reaper, Breeze, Mohammed and Dusk as told by the old man. She looked both annoyed and confused.

"Uh, no offense, Rudy," she called out. "But this seems sort of extreme for you to get a simple first aid kit."

"This doesn't require a first aid kit, child," said Mohammed grimly. "This requires amputation." Everyone protested against that until Rudolph spoke up.

"I said I had something that can heal your wound. I didn't say it was a first aid kit." He brought out a wooden chest containing what appeared to be glowing shards of blue crystals. "This is how the hunters heal themselves whenever they sustain a major injury." He walked over to Whisper, a look of grimness in his eyes.

"You're scaring me," commented Breeze. "Why should we trust something that belongs to one of those savages?"

"I've seen it work. However," he paused and everyone held their breath. "I will not lie, Whisper. This is going to hurt. A lot." Now Whisper understood why she needed to be held down.

"Uh," she chuckled, a little afraid. "Can we just amputate my leg?"

"Big crybaby," he muttered, suddenly stabbing the crystals into her hole.

"OW!" Whimper cried as blood oozed out. Then to her and everyone, except Rudolph's, amazement, the crystals dissolved themselves into her wound. Flesh was starting to take shape again. Suddenly, Whisper let out an excruciatingly painful screech so loud, everyone clamped their ears down. She started wailing for the pain to end. Breeze, Reaper, Mohammed and Dusk pinned her down with all their might, so that she didn't thrash about.

Shadow marched up to Rudolph and snarled. "You call that healing?!"

"Watch," the old man ordered.

Eventually, the wails turned into hyperventilating pants and hiccups. Whisper's wound was gone, leaving no traces of scars. She still felt pain when she was released and stood up; she collapsed onto her hands and knees. Supported by Red and Gauntlet, she hobbled over to a couch and rested there.

"Damn it," she cursed. "I won't be using this knee for a while."

"Well," announced Rudolph. "Make yourselves at home. First tunnel's the entrance and exit. Second tunnel's the kitchen. Third tunnel's the bathroom. I don't have another one, get used to it. And the last tunnel leads to my room. Don't go in unless there's an emergency." Hmm. "I won't lie. I didn't expect to have this much company. So, don't expect to have many food or beds. You'll have to get used to sleeping here and some of us will have to go out and search for more food with me." Gauntlet raised his hand. "Yes?"

"You got a bathroom here?"

"Third tunnel to the left."

As Gauntlet left in a rush, Mac asked an important question. "How far is the hunters' camp from here?"

Rudolph shook his head. "I don't think we are going." Silence.

"What?" was all everyone said.

"You're not going! Not until we are well rested of course. Tomorrow, we'll be heading for the camp. I promise."

"So, what are we going to do now?" demanded Mac, getting angrier by the minute.

"Sleep. Stay for the night. It's all we can do now."

This man is getting weirder and weirder.

"Hey, Rudy," called out Gauntlet. "I don't get it. I don't see a toilet. All I see is a hole. I don't think I can flush this."

"Don't worry," shouted Rudolph. "I dug a series of pipes that lead straight to a river! It's a less advanced version of indoor plumbing."

"That's helpful," Gauntlet replied sarcastically.

"Well, goodnight, everyone," cackled Rudolph. "I'll see you all in the morning!" He walked to his room and slammed it shut.

"What is wrong with him?" asked Raimundo.

0000

The next morning, Shadow, Red Crosshairs, Reaper, Mohammed and Mac were nowhere to be found. They had left with Rudolph to search for food for everyone else. The rest of the group was scattered about here and there, doing whatever. Gauntlet and Raimundo were at the entrance on guard duty, and Maria was reading a copy of the Bible. She didn't really enjoy it, but it was the only book the old man had. She was already at the Book of Exodus. Breeze was currently doing her business in the bathroom. As for Whisper, she was sleeping peacefully. Her leg had fully healed, but she was the first one to sleep soundly (and overnight) ever since she was brought to this planet.

"How long do you think you can stand one more chapter?" she asked Maria all of a sudden.

"When did you wake up?"

"A few minutes ago."

Maria sighed and said, "I don't know. I never really cared for religion that much. When has the Lord ever done anything good for me?"

"That sounds kind of harsh," Whisper commented.

"My life is harsh. Ever since my stupid dad went gambling."

"Let me guess, he sold everything even the deed to his house to gambling and then you were forced to kill to make money?"

Maria placed the book down, leaving it open on a section of the Exodus: the part where Moses killed an Egyptian slave driver in an attempt to rescue a Hebrew slave. "No," she muttered. "My...my dad got rich. Somehow he had made big bucks in the casino back in Sicily. I made it big in college. Then came the divorce. Something about money. I never really paid attention."

"Where have I heard that before," interrupted Whisper, earning a growl from Maria.

"_Anyway_...After the divorce, I found it difficult to find a job. Until I met a guy named Trey. We knew each other since high school and college. He promised me money if I became a bodyguard of a Mafia boss, who was also his dad. Well, I had no choice. I lost contact with mio padre after the divorce and mio madre became nothing but a neglectful, drunken sod. They could rot in the inferno for all I cared."

Whisper looked down, still whispering to this sad story.

"Heh. You should have seen me, Sarah. I was good at it, bumping off people who would dare cross the boss. Gamblers, people who couldn't pay debts, thieves, murderers, amateur murderers, the works. I basically became the boss's pet, and me and Trey were closer than ever. I got sick of hearing being called a pet. Trey defended me from people who picked on me. Then...one month before I came to this jungle shithole...my boss called me in for a hitman job. Apparently somebody had been leeching off money from his casino for the past few years, but they couldn't get a positive ID. Finally, they found it. I got in my car, drove to the hovel..."

Tears were streaming down her eyes. Whisper couldn't help but frown in sympathy.

"...and I swung an aluminum baseball bat to the head. He was still alive. That's when I got a good look at the man's face."

"Who was it?" Whisper asked.

"D...d...d..." choked Maria. "Dad."

Whisper did her best not to say, "Saw it coming." Indeed, she had heard stories like this before, growing up in Gotham.

"Turns out that's how he got the money to get me into college. Oh, sure he survived, but wanted nothing to do with me." She paused. "I'm not joking. He screamed that in my face when I visited him at the hospital. Mom committed herself to a hospital to deal with her depression. I basically had no choice but to stay with the mob. I was nothing but a zombie. Killing was all I could do...until I was abducted by those alien hunters." She tightened her grip on her pants. "Now I kill for survival. If I can survive this long."

She felt a pair of hands wrap around her body. It was Whisper, now unmasked and hugging her.

"So that's what you look like, Sarah."

Sarah looked at her. "Don't get used to it."

Maria laughed a little. She paused, then looked down at her Bible.

"Want me to read this to you?"

Sarah was flabbergasted. "What am I, three?" She paused. "Eh, go right ahead. I mean, I never read the Bible myself, nor do I intend to...but I wouldn't mind hearing what's in it."

Breeze heard everything behind the closed door of the bathroom. Pretending like she had not heard anything, she walked out, pointed to the bathroom and said, "Do not go in there. Trust me."

"I do," Whisper and Maria said in unison.

0000

"What are we looking for again?" complained Gauntlet. Rudolph's group had been walking for some time now, going nowhere. "Are you taking us to the hunters' camp?"

"No," said Rudolph, clearly annoyed. "I left some snares with bait in them on the day I found you. I want to see what I caught."

"Are you even planning on taking us there?!" shouted Mac.

Rudolph paused, then slowly turned around. "Yes, I do. I don't want to spend the rest of whatever life I have left in a jungle hell! Now, if you don't mind, keep your opinions to yourself!" He gave a death glare at Mac, but then turned around. "Oh, there are the snares!" He laughed maniacally, returning to his crazy personality again.

Mac backed away a little. "I don't like this guy."

No one noticed the brute coming out of a line of bushes, shoulder cannons trained on them.


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you think of the old man, Marcas?" asked Mohammed to Red Crosshairs. They had been guarding the entryway of the shelter for some time now, and yet nothing had happened. Truth be told, Red was more concerned with what Shadow and the others were doing.

"He's creepy," he admitted. "But he seems nice enough."

"I wonder what was in his room?" the Arabic man wondered.

"Probably his old magazines."

The two of them shuddered at that thought. As they resumed guard duty, they got bored quickly. Eventually, Red asked a question.

"What sort of patients did you treat back on Earth?"

Mohammed sighed before saying, "Well, the usual. People who suffered injuries, sicknesses, or broken bones. Hell, I was really good at at. The best doctor in the west side of Saudi Arabia, the people called me. But..."

"But what?"

"But then the Taliban came. That's when I got sick of it."

Red was going to regret this question, but he asked anyway, "Sick of what?"

BOOM! Suddenly the whole ground began to shake! As the two landed on their rears, they jumped back in shock as lava began to snake its way past them. Thankfully, it didn't end up in the shelter.

"Oh, no," whispered Red in horror. "Gauntlet, what are you doing?!"

"What is that boy?" demanded Mohammed. "He's not just a pyrokinetic kid."

"He's a vessel for the Roman god of volcanoes himself: Vulcan!" shouted Red. "If this is happening, who knows what sort of destruction is going on?!"

"What do we do?!"

Red looked around, then noticed two large boulders. "Get the girls out and help me move those rocks! We have to move them to block the lava's current!"

The sniping doctor nodded his head and rushed inside. 'Sam, don't do something you're going to regret!' thought Red with worry.

0000

**5 minutes earlier...**

"Now, then," cackled Rudolph. "This looks nice!" In the snare was a large reptilian like monster with long ears and bat wings for upper arms. It looked like a fresh kill. And there were two more of its kind in similar traps. "They are young!" cackled the old man. "They are tender, they are nice! Yes, they are! Eat them eat them!" His mouth watered with hunger, much to the disgust of Gauntlet, Reaper, Shadow, Raimundo and Mac.

"You do know we can cook the rabbit-bat-lizards, right?" asked Gauntlet.

"And take away the good taste," whined the old man.

"Blech," groaned Shadow a little. "No thanks. I don't like my meat raw."

"Alright. We'll eat your way. Help me tie these down and take them back to the shelter." Rudolph seemed a little disappointed, but no one cared.

"Why is it that we have to be the ones that lift the heavy crap?" Raimundo asked, heaving one of the beasts.

"A better question would be," replied Mac. "Why are we still here? Why aren't we going over to the hunters' camp?"

"Rudolph means well," commented Reaper. "Maybe he just wants something for us to eat. Regain our strength before we head out."

"I don't trust him."

"Like you don't trust us?"

Mac nodded at Reaper. The two of them still had no idea of each others' background, but the two of them didn't care. It was still survival of the fittest out here, and neither one of them will show weakness.

The group was almost a mile away from the shelter when Mac sniffed the air. "Oh, Rai, do you smoke, too?"

"No," grunted Raimundo. "That stuff is nothing but road asphalt in your lungs. It's what gave my mamma and papa cancer. Poor things."

"Oh, the irony," commented Gauntlet with sarcasm.

"Shut up, hot head."

"You know, what's a scrawny fellow like you doing with a bunch of scum like Mac?"

Raimundo shook his head. "Probably because of my business with the drug cartel."

Everyone said in surprise, "Drug cartel?"

"Yeah," said Raimundo with a smile. "Nothing but pounds and pounds of cocaine being sold to pathetic drug addicts and making big bucks. And killing people who stole from us. I liked every moment of it."

"You are horrible," groaned Gauntlet.

"So? When my folks at home found out, they said the same thing. Told them to go fuck themselves. We were poor anyway. What choice did I have?"

Gauntlet frowned in disappointment. Idiot. Then his nose flared up. "Phew, something really is smoking!" Everyone looked at him. "I'm not causing it!" Suddenly, Rudolph sniffed the air.

"They're here!" he screamed and he dropped his catch and started running.

"Rudy!" Shadow shouted, but he grunted in pain when something invisible kicked him in the gut. Raimundo grabbed his Uzi and fired wildly, but was only shooting the air. Something grabbed him by the neck and tossed him into a line of bushes. Mac pulled out his machine gun, and fired. Green fluid sprayed a patch of leaves.

"So, you _can_ bleed!" he shouted, still firing. He heard a rustle in the trees, and opened fired. Something flew through the air and kicked him in the face, sending him flying. Now Gauntlet was left.

"I know you're out there!" he shouted, charging up his namesakes. "Come out or I'll burn you!" No response. Growling, a wave of fire generated from his body and blanked the air around him. He was careful not to hurt anyone. As he looked around, he could see in the smoke, an outline of something big charging towards him. The alien grabbed him by the arms. Big mistake. Gauntlet only needed to raise the temperature by 100 degrees, causing it to let go. He was sure he heard something roar in pain.

"I know you're there," the demigod said. "Show yourself, coward!"

The brute appeared out of thin air, finally showing itself. This one wore only a single gauntlet on one arm, chest armor, a pair of metal greaves, leather sandals, and a mask shaped like a warthog's face. A bullet hole in its leg indicated where Mac had shot it. Strapped to its belt was a menacing looking sledge hammer with fiery symbols on it.

"_That hammer looks awfully familiar_," said Vulcan.

"Really?" Gauntlet asked. "Where?"

"_No time! Here he comes_!"

The brute aimed his shoulder cannons at the young demigod, only to feel something burning hot on his shoulders. His weapons were melting! He tossed the molten metal to the ground. Pulling out his Combi-Stick spear, he aimed at the young man, but he felt a sharp sting in his wrist. A barbed whip swiped the spear and tossed it in the air. The whip belonged to the boy and he now had the spear in his possession. As he watched, the boy melted the spear in his bare hands.

"I'm Mr. Green Christmas, I'm Mr. Sun," he sang. "I'm Mr. Heat Blister, I'm Mr. Hundred and One! They call me Heat Miser; whatever I touch starts to melt in my clutch! I'm too much!"

The brute cocked his head to the side, croaking in confusion. No matter. He was ready for such an event. Although he had been warned of the dangers of the weapon he won, he wanted to put the Hammer of Hephaestus to the test now. He unsheathed the hammer and held it in both hands.

"Ooh, what are you going to do with that?" mocked Gauntlet. He was taken aback when the hammer ignited itself and its owner in a cloak of fire. The hammer's symbols glowed ruby red and sapphire blue and their flames danced along with the cloak's. Gauntlet felt anger in his heart as Vulcan started screaming in his head.

"_THIEF! THIEF! THEY WOULD DARE STEAL FROM THE GODS OF OLYMPUS_?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"_THAT'S MY HAMMER! THEY STOLE MY HAMMER_!"

Gauntlet's eyes widened. How did the hunters get their hands on such a sacred relic?! His eyes narrowed and his lips formed a sinister smirk. "Fine, alien," he roared, fire in his eyes. "If you think you can handle the Flame of Olympus, then let's see who's the true wielder of the Flame!"

The brute roared back, accepting his challenge. Gauntlet roared back, his whole body igniting. The brute slammed the ground with his hammer and a ring of fire formed around them. There was no way the others would interfere now.

"Damn!" cursed Shadow. "Sam! Just be careful of your heart condition! You know what will happen!"

"What happens?" screamed Raimundo.

"If he puts too much stress on his heart while using his powers, he'll have a fatal heart attack!"

Shadow prayed nothing horrible will happen to his friend, but now he had another concern. He knew neither demigod nor alien hunter will back down. This battle will change the landscape.

"We have to go! Trust me, this is going to get ugly!"

0000

The brute roared as he spun the hammer like a parade baton. A tornado of flames formed around him and he walked towards Gauntlet, but Gauntlet raised his arms up high and did the same thing. Charging towards each other, the two warriors clashed their weapons against each other, sending sparks of fire flying. Gauntlet's eyes glared with anger as he stared down at the alien.

"I'LL ROAST YOU!" he screamed in rage. In the back of Gauntlet's mind, something was telling him to calm down; this wasn't his anger, it was Vulcan's and it was taking hold of him! But the rage pushed those thoughts aside.

With a roar, he sent a shower of flames onto the brute, but he was now just as powerful as Gauntlet was. With a loud roar, he slammed the jungle ground multiple times. Waves made entirely of blue flames shot out of the ground and formed around him. With a roar, the brute sent them towards the young demigod. To Gauntlet's perspective, they looked like waves on a beach...a burning red hot beach. He brushed them aside like they were nothing, but felt something hot burn his face as he was sent flying. The brute slammed the hammer, making direct contact with his face. Gauntlet snarled as he rubbed his sore face. A patch of third degree burns was on his left cheek. Now he was pissed beyond words.

"RRRRROOOOOAAAAARRR!" the brute and demigod yelled.

The brute shook the hammer with both hands in the air, grunting as something shot out. As Gauntlet looked up, he saw balls of fire raining down. He had to dodge and roll to avoid getting hurt. Then he saw an opening and without mercy he punched the brute multiple times in the face and chest. With a mighty kick, the brute was sent flying. He grabbed the ground just in time to avoid touching the ring of fire. He rolled out of the way as Gauntlet struck the ground like a meteor, almost crushing him in the process. The demigod's eyes burned with rage as his own cloak of fire hissed menacingly.

"Calm down," he tried to tell himself. "If you let this up..."

"_NO_!" Vulcan's voice shouted, overpowering his own. "_HIS KIND DISHONORED OLYMPUS! THEY ALL MUST PAY! EVERY ONE OF THEM! DOWN TO EVERY WOMAN AND CHILD_!"

CRACK! That is what Gauntlet heard when the brute struck his namesakes, nearly breaking them. Now infuriated beyond any hope of recovery, the demigod grabbed the hammer, and the brute grabbed it.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Gauntlet shouted with rage. But as he spoke these words, he saw something. It was off in the distance, and yet, it was directly in front of him. It looked like the brute grabbing the hammer from a fresh kill. Now he knew what happened.

"You killed one of Vulcan's apprentices?" he snarled. "Murderer. HERETIC!"

Suddenly, he dropped to his knees. The brute gave him a mighty headbutt so powerful, he actually heard his skull crack. Then he pulled out a whip made of an unknown material and struck the demigod's hand away from the hammer. But as his fingers wrapped around the hammer, he felt a burning sensation. Gauntlet wrapped around his own barbed whip around the brute's hand.

"I won't let you have this!" he screamed.

The brute roared. Even with his arm wrapped in burning barbed wire, he slammed the hammer into the ground. The ring of fire was gone, but that did not mean the fight was over. The ground shook violently as a pool of volcanic fluids burst out of the ground. Wrapping his whip around a tree trunk, the brute tugged at the demigod.

"That won't happen, heretic!" screamed Gauntlet, slamming his free hand into the ground.

Fire scorched the brute's feet, making him lose balance. Suddenly, he lost his footing and fell into the fiery pit, but he still had a firm grip on the whip. He simply climbed back up onto higher ground and regained his balance. Turning around, he continued to tug on Gauntlet's whip and Gauntlet tugged back, forming a tug-o-war that will result in the loser's fiery death.

"THAT'S IT!" screamed Gauntlet. "I'M DONE PLAYING!" Igniting his fire powers, a fire slowly snaked its way from his hand towards the brute's. He was going to burn his whole arm off! It looked bad, but then the brute had a change of plans. He leaped over the lava pit and onto Gauntlet himself! Grabbing his arms, he bent them in an awkward manner, breaking them. As Gauntlet screamed in pain, the brute punched him sixteen times in the face. It was too much. His grip on the whip loosened and the brute kicked him into the lava.

In the distance, Shadow watched in horror as the brute unwrapped the demigod's whip and claimed it as his own. Third degree burns coated his left hand. Shadow began sweating and it was not just from the heat.

"I'm sorry about Sam," commented Raimundo. "He was starting to grow on me."

"No, that's not it," said Shadow with fear. "That thing's tossed him into Sam's natural habitat! He's awakened the God of Volcanoes inside Sam!"

As the brute walked over to the pit to make sure his opponent was dead, the ground began to shake violently. Suddenly, out of the pit came a giant shape of a man of lava. His beard, robes and eyes glowed reddish orange and his hands held two hammers that were similar to the brute's.

"I WILL NOT LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS, HERETIC!" screamed Vulcan.

Smashing the ground with his fists, more volcanoes began to sprout out from the soil, and lava began to flow.

"SAMMY" shouted a voice. "CALM DOWN BEFORE YOU BURN EVERYONE!"

Vulcan turned and saw Raimundo looking up at him.

"YOU WERE NOT PERMITTED TO SPEAK!"

A shower of lava poured out of his mouth and Shadow tackled the Spanish man out of the way just in time.

"Get out of here, Rai." he scolded. "I can handle this!"

"How can you stop that thing?!" Raimundo responded, and he wasn't referring to the brute.

"You'll see."

0000

The brute continued to slam his hammer at the god, surprisingly damaging him. Roaring, the smith god spewed a fiery breath, but the brute dodged just in time and began to use his whips to slash and cut into the god's back, tearing off huge chunks of molten flesh in the process. Can gods truly bleed? Enraged, Vulcan spun around and started tossing huge pieces of the ground at him, creating earthquakes in the process.

"MY KINGDOM!" he screamed in rage.

Suddenly, something impaled the brute straight through the chest. Raimundo panted as he kept his machete's blade in the brute's body. That didn't stop Vulcan from letting out a mighty bellow, sending a wave of fire from his body. Both the brute and Raimundo were sent flying.

"I WILL BURN ALL!" screamed Vulcan. Suddenly he felt cold. In fact, he felt so cold, he couldn't generate enough heat. That's because his body temperature had decreased to sub-zero levels. He screamed, but that stopped when he was fully encased in ice. Shadow panted as he exhausted his ice powers. Vulcan's body cracked and fell into a million pieces. A teenaged, brown haired boy wearing nothing but the torn remains of pants collapsed. Shadow grabbed Sam and held him close.

"You fool," he cursed to his unconscious body. "You let Vulcan get away with you! You could have burned us all!"

"Hey," called out Mac. "Our friend doesn't look so good."

Shadow and Reaper rushed over to Mac. The brute's body was smoking and his skin was black ashes and his armor had melted into his skin. Shadow now saw his chance. Carefully walking over to the corpse, he tried to peel the helmet off. It took some time, but he succeeded. To his disappointment, nothing was under the mask but a pile of ashes. Chucking the helmet down, he rushed over to Gauntlet.

"We'll get you back," he whispered, lifting him onto his back. "I promise."

"What about Rai?" shouted Mac, lifting up the cartel man. To Shadow's horror, he was covered in third degree burns and his clothes and shoes melted into his skin.

"Take him with us! Hurry! We have to get back to the shelter, now!"


	8. Chapter 8

"Come on!" Mac and Shadow dragged their feet across the jungle floor, no longer caring about the fact that they had lost their food to the wilderness. Sam went mad and nearly burned everything in an attempt to kill one of the hunters, and Raimundo was caught in the crossfire. They had to get back to the shelter and fast!

When they did reach the shelter, they could tell something was wrong. Red and Mohammed were not at their posts, trenches almost full to the brim with lava were all around the entrance and the doors were wide open.

"Oh, no," whispered Shadow with fear. He leaped over the lava pit and into the shelter. "Ronin!" he called out. "Whisper! Red!" Then his eyes widened and his breath stopped short. "Ally..." Breeze was huddled in a corner with Whisper in her arms. They were both sobbing. After lacing Sam down on a chair, he rushed over to their side.

"Leave us be," Breeze whimpered. "I tell you, we've paid the price!"

"Ally," whispered Shadow. "It's me."

She looked up and quickly embraced him. "Oh, Jayden!" She along with Whisper began sobbing loudly as they tightened their grip around him.

"I thought he was going to kill us! I actually thought we were going to die! I was so scared! So scared!"

It didn't take a genius to realize who did this.

"Where is he?" asked Shadow, fear and anger pulsing his mind.

"Gone," said Whisper. "All he left was..." She pointed to a corner and there, lying on the floor was Gauntlet's whip and a set of hunter armor. "He left that there."

"Where are the others?" demanded Shadow. The girls looked down.

"They tried to defend us from that thing," explained Whisper. "But that his strength was like ten times greater than Bane's even when he's pumped up on that Venom steroid."

"Where are the others?" repeated Shadow.

"Right here."

Upon hearing Ronin's voice he turned to the left. Ronin, Red Crosshairs, Mohammed and Maria were all there, sitting on a bench and tending to bruises and claw marks on their bodies.

"Never in my life have ever taken such a beating," groaned Ronin, rubbing his sore cheek.

"But...but..." sputtered Shadow. "Why didn't he kill you?!" Then he said, "HOW THE HELL DID HE FIND YOU?!"

Red pointed to a mechanical bird-like wing reclining in a corner.

"They've been following us with a probe since we arrived here," explained Red. "That's how he found us. We crippled it when we spotted it flying over our shelter. My guess is that's why the hunter came for us: to take that bird back. As for why he didn't kill us..." He paused. "I can't say."

"What the hell happened to him?!" shouted Maria, pointing to the burnt Raimundo who was carefully being laid down on another couch.

"Sam," explained Shadow. "His powers overpowered him and the spirit inside him took control. He burnt one of those hunters to death, but Raimundo got caught in the crossfire."

"Well, I hate to be a bearer of bad news," said Mohammed, getting up. "But we don't have ANYTHING in the medical packs to treat burns this bad!"

"Didn't that crazy old man say he has those healing shards he stole from the hunters?" asked Maria.

"Yeah," replied the Arabic doctor/sniper. "But he never showed us where!"

"Search everywhere!" ordered Mac loudly. "He must have a secret compartment or something!"

Everyone nodded and started scrambling all over the place. Ronin and Maria looked behind the bookshelf, Breeze and Whisper tore the cushions from the chair Sam was reclining on, and Red and Mohammed searched the tunnels. Shadow stayed still, however.

"Well?" asked Mac. "Are you going to help, kid?"

"You have no right," snarled Shadow.

"What?"

"You have no right to give orders here."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were playing Follow the Leader over here!"

"You have no right to give orders to MY team, Mac!"

Suddenly, Mac punched him square in the face. He fell flat on his rear and didn't even have time to recover when Mac picked him up and slammed him against the wall.

"Now, look, Jayden," he snarled. "I don't give a shit about leading anyone! I just want to get the fuck off this planet! Now, you can join my side and help us, or lead us to our deaths! What's your choice?"

Shadow looked at him and snarled with a cold frown that matched Mac's, "I know why _I'm_ here doing this. Do you?" Mac dropped him and walked away, scoffing. Then he asked, "Did anyone find anything?"

The Shadow Warriors said nothing as they had seen Mac's little argument with Shadow, but Maria and Mohammed said, "No."

Then everyone looked over at the door to Rudolph's room. "There's one place we didn't look yet." Mac said.

"I thought he said not to go in there?" asked Whisper.

"All the more reason for us to go in. Who else wants to know the dark secrets of Rudolph? We all know ours."

"Parts of it," commented Shadow.

"Thanks for volunteering, Jayden," commented Mac.

"WHAT?!"

"Get your ass in there!"

Shadow wanted to shout back, but he stopped and shook his head. He will never get along with this man. Nor will he see eye to eye with him. Entering the room, he saw a rack of rifles and swords, a bed made up of leaves and bamboo; underneath it was a box containing wires, mines and grenades, obvious tools needed to make booby traps. Then he opened the closet in the back. Inside it was a military uniform hanging on a makeshift coat hanger. It was old, torn and the sleeves had holes in them. The boots were worn out as well. Shadow thought he saw something sticking out of the coat pocket. Upon inspection, he realized it was an old photograph. What he saw in it made his eyes widen.

"Oh my!" he whispered.

Then he saw the familiar glowing shards lying on a pile of dirty laundry. Jackpot! Placing the photo back in the military coat pocket, he snatched the shards and rushed outside. But he skidded to a stop when he saw who was with his friends.

"What did you DO?!"

Rudolph marched over to Shadow and grabbed him by the wrists. Truth be told, Shadow was a little scared when he saw the insane rage in the old man's eyes.

"DID YOU SEE ANYTHING?!" the old man screeched.

"Nothing! I only saw the crystal!"

"LIAR! YOU SAW IT! YOU SAW IT!" He stopped when he heard the clicking of a gun's safety mechanism. He slowly turned to see Mac pressing his gun to his forehead. He laughed, "What are you going to do, Mac? Kill the only person who knows his way around this jungle?"

"I don't give a shit. Why did you leave us alone with that pyromaniac of a hunter?!" Mac screamed.

"That probe was heading to my shelter! And it's thanks to you and your friends they found me! Fifty years of living in safety, wasted!"

"Look, Rudy," started Shadow with a grim tone. "I don't care about that whole running off thing, but we are all stuck with each other. Like it or not."

Rudolph wanted to say something, but changed his mind. "Well, I brought back whatever is left of our catch. I hope you all enjoy cooked alien!"

That wasn't important now. Shadow walked past him and administered the crystals to Raimundo's body. The ear piercing screams would haunt the group's nightmares that night.

0000

The aura was a very awkward during breakfast. Oh, sure, Raimundo was feeling better, albeit a little itchy with all the burns and gauze wrapped around his body, but after that little outburst from Rudolph, everyone felt uncomfortable. As for Sam, his Gauntlet costume was ruined and replaced with the hunter armor, but that didn't matter. He nearly killed Shadow and Mac and burnt Raimundo. The cartel man tried to talk some sense in Sam, that it wasn't his fault, but he refused to speak to him. The only time he did was when Raimundo tried to apologize about the hunters taking Hammer of Hephaestus back from him. It didn't go well...

"They can have it," demanded Sam. "I don't want it!"

"Well, it is your hammer, isn't it? It's got your name in the frigging title!" Sam grabbed Raimundo by the throat. "Itchy throat! ITCHY THROAT!"

"Those things tainted it! It was a tool of craftsmanship! And they turned it into a weapon!"

"Uh..." Raimundo was at a loss of words.

"And..." Sam let him go and walked away.

Shadow walked over to him and asked, "Vulcan used that hammer as a weapon before. Why are you upset about it now?" Sam looked up at him.

"I'm not upset because they used it as a weapon!" He sighed and walked with Shadow away from the others. This was a private matter. "The fire elemental that possessed that hammer was one of Vulcan's apprentices. The hunters abducted him centuries ago and they won the hammer honorably when the elemental was killed. Since then, those hunter who won that hammer passed it down to his descendants. The one I killed...was going to pass it on to his son after this hunt. I saw it when we both touched the hammer at the same time."

Shadow was confused. "How...?"

"The hammer must have wanted to show its previous owner what had happened. But..." Tears started to stream down his eyes. "What am I supposed to do now that I know that thing has a kid?" Shadow patted his shoulder. What could he say?

"I'm sure he would have been proud," said Rudolph's voice. "To learn that his father fought with dignity and honor."

"Do you mind?" asked Shadow, annoyed. "This is private."

"Alright. Alright. I'll go." He paused before leaving. "That's also another reason why that one probably found its way here. He must have wanted the owner of that whip to fight with honor."

"Honor?" asked Shadow.

"Yes," said Rudolph solemnly. "When I first arrived, I thought they were mindless savages, but soon I realized that these aliens fight and hunt for honor and as a rite of passage. Much like ancient human warriors. Makes me wonder if we had based our honor off of these creatures if they had been to Earth for centuries."

Honor. Rite of passage. Shadow thought about those words as he sat down. It almost reminded him of his grandfather, mother and younger brother, who were all part of the League of Assassins. If they had been coming to Earth since ancient times, then maybe the League based their ways off of them as well. He smiled a little, remembering his family. He wondered what they were doing back on earth.


	9. Chapter 9

"Bath time!" called out Raimundo. It was most annoying part of the day: bathing Raimundo and scrubbing off the dead skin cells. He couldn't move without hurting himself and he found himself having a pampered life using the Shadow Warriors as servants. Life couldn't be better. For him, anyway.

"It's your turn today!" said Shadow nonchalantly to Reaper. Reaper groaned and walked to the bathroom with Raimundo. Right now he wished he was dead.

"Who wants breakfast?" called out Breeze, carrying plates filled with alien meat and plants. Thanks to Rudolph, she was able to tell what form of vegetation is safe to eat and what isn't. She could get used to doing this. Sam got up and took his seat at the table.

"May not be Thai food," he said, taking a bite out of meat. "But it's not a bad substitute." Everyone else seemed to agree. Red however, was looking up at Mohammed.

"You know, you never finished telling me what you were sick of the day before yesterday," he said.

Mohammed dropped his fork. "You want to know?! Everyone! I got sick of treating patients who were just begging me to save their sorry asses! There, happy?!"

No one said a word. Then Red said, "That's not true. There must be more to it."

The doctor put his fork down, and he was very uncomfortable with all these eyes watching him. Still he mustered his courage and replied, "Yes it is true. People from all over came to me for help, but it was then that people from all over came to me: soldiers, other doctors, and...family members of Taliban members. People who didn't deserve to live. I got sick of it. So, I decided to put those I didn't like out of their misery, whether they were dying or not."

Everyone was disgusted.

"Was there money involved too?" asked Maria.

The doctor shook his head. "I don't care about money. As long as I saved people I like I can be happy."

Well, that water was under the bridge. No need to hear anymore.

"All that's left is you, Mac," said Shadow. "You told my friends before about a business involving weapons making. What was it?" Mac kept silent. "Okay."

"With that said and done," said Sam, finishing his meal. "We now have to get to the hunters' camp and get off this jungle wasteland. Somehow."

"With what?" replied Whisper. "We have no idea where they are, have no way to reason with them, and Rudolph..." She turned to look at the closed door of Rudolph's room. "I think he's losing it."

"Yeah," agreed Maria. "Ever notice that he's been talking to himself like someone invisible is with him?"

"He hasn't had human contact for years," argued Shadow. "Of course he would do something like that."

"Yeah, but he's starting to scare me. I think he's hiding something. Why did he go crazy when he found you with those healing shards?"

He paused. "Maybe it has something to do with that picture. He had it in his military coat."

"What did it look like?" asked Maria.

"It looked like...Shh! Here he comes!"

Rudolph walked out of the bathroom and to the table. "Good news, anyone! I have fixed the plumbing with the toilet. You may use it now."

Everyone was a little disgusted at this. Then Mac said, "When are we going to the hunters' camp?"

Rudolph frowned, "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Because it's the only way to get off this planet! You said it yourself!"

"I said it might be, but I never said it has been done. You cannot talk to these things without getting killed."

"Why, because you haven't done it?!"

Rudolph simply walked away.

"I'm starting to get the feeling he doesn't want us to leave," commented Mohammed to himself.

At that moment the door to the shower opened and Red came out with Raimundo, perfectly dried and wrapped in bandages.

"Next time," he snarled at Shadow as he dropped Raimundo on the couch. "You wash him!"

0000

Somewhere at the edge of the forest, the predator laid his brother's ashes into the ground and placed his hammer and mask over the spot as tombstones. He had warned him not to use that damned hammer again, but it was probably his want to test the original owner of it that made him use it. He rose up from his brother's grave and walked over to the sniper, who was cleaning his rifle. Now was not the time to mourn yet. They will do that after they claim their prizes. Although the predator had to admit, he was happy to see these children fight like his own species. They did accept his gift to them pretty well: the fire elemental's whip. Now that he and the sniper were the only ones left, they knew that the next time they hunt, it will be more difficult.

0000

Morning came. Everyone was still asleep. Rudolph was not in the shelter. Probably gone off somewhere to be crazy again. Mac was packing his gun and whatever equipment he could find in his bag. He wasn't going to leave his fate in the hands of some nut job and a few kids. Not one bit! He was just about to leave, when Shadow blocked his path.

"I never thought you would stoop so low, Mac."

"Leave me alone. I've made my decision. You're all ineffectual."

"You won't last out there for long, you know."

"So? Better than staying with a crazy old man and doing nothing."

He opened the door, when he stopped a minute.

"By the way, Jayden. What was that picture you had?"

Shadow looked up at him, confused.

"What picture?"

"I saw you pull out the picture from that coat in the old man's room. What was it?" What Shadow told Mac made him almost drop his bag. "I'm out of here."

"I won't stop you. And I know you won't change your mind, but if you ever do..."

"I won't. Believe me."

And with that, Mac walked off into the jungle, leaving Shadow by himself. He shook his head sadly and walked back to his room when he heard Breeze come in.

"Jayden? I thought I heard voices. Who were you talking to?"

"Nothing."


	10. Chapter 10

At the shelter, the Shadow Warriors finally woke up and were ready for breakfast. It didn't take them long to realize who was gone.

"Where's Mac?" asked Breeze.

Shadow fiddled with his fork a little before responding, "He left."

"What?" asked everyone.

"He just didn't want to be with us anymore."

"Wha...But...That's stupid!" shouted Reaper.

"His mind was made up. I didn't stop him."

"You didn't stop him?" echoed Breeze. "What do you mean...Wait, Shadow. You were talking to him early this morning? YOU LET HIM GO?!"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't change his mind."

"I'm not upset," commented Rudolph. "He was probably was going to slow us down."

"Well," argued Maria. "At least he would have been able to make this group more competent!"

"Even if he did try to usurp me," grumbled Shadow so low no one could hear him.

"So, what now? Change of plans?" Whisper asked.

"No. We stick with the old plan. We go to the hunters' camp. We'll meet him there."

"NO YOU WON'T!" Rudolph screamed, scaring everyone. "YOU ARE ALL STAYING HERE AND THAT IS FINAL!"

"Whoa, old man," said Reaper, trying to calm him down. "Keep your thong on."

"I won't let you go! Not after I've made human contact for the first time in fifty years!"

Everyone was starting to get uneasy when he said that.

"I think I hear the hunters calling," said Maria, awkwardly. "Let's get out of here, okay?"

Rudolph stabbed the table with his cutting knife. "No one's leaving. No one! You are all mine!"

"Are we your slaves to you?!" shouted Sam.

"Shut up, flambe! I saw my boys killed before my eyes, and I can restart again! Start a platoon to kill the hunters! Claim their weapons! Hunt them down as they have hunted us!"

The Shadow Warriors and the three criminals backed away from the table in worry.

"What about the human colony on this planet?" asked Red Crosshairs.

"We ARE the human colony! We will have our own settlement here and bring down the aliens that persecute us! And I have the ultimate fighters to aid me!"

"Uh..." was all Maria said.

The old man really was crazy just like Mac said. They had to get out of this nut house immediately. Suddenly, Sam tensed up when he felt a familiar presence. "They're here!" A blast of plasma energy shot through the room, sending everyone scattering.

"Get out now!" shouted Shadow.

Everyone made a mad dash for the exit as fast as they could. However, Raimundo was grabbed by the seat of his pants.

"Raimundo!" shouted Sam.

"GO! I'll be alright!"

Sam stopped and shouted, "Liar!"

"GO! You cuzo!"

Sam hesitated then took off running. Raimundo stared down into the eyes of the sniper that was holding him.

"Say good night." he said pulling a grenade to his mouth and pulling the trigger.

0000

There was a huge explosion that made the Shadow Warriors and the criminals lose their footing.

"RAI!" screamed Sam. He choked sobs as he pounded the ground with his fists. Shadow placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, he felt a sharp kick to his side and something tightening his throat. Rudolph was holding him by the throat.

"This is your fault! You did this! You led them to me!"

"You betrayed us!"

"No! I tried to save us! I should have known you would do this to me!"

"Rudy..." said Maria, trying to calm the old man down.

"Stand down! This is your fault! They all died in vain!"

Bang! Rudolph fell down dead. Red Crosshairs held his gun in his hands, panting.

Sam backed away from the corpse as he ran back to his friends.

"Oh, god, you just killed him! He was our only way out of this planet!"

Shadow shook his head. "He wasn't trying to get off this planet. He was running from his own guilt."

"Guilt? Shadow, what are you talking about?"

Shadow sighed. "I found a picture in his pocket."

"What picture?" asked Breeze.

"The hunters didn't kill his squadron. He killed themselves out of cowardice. He must have taken the picture just to laugh at them."

Everyone was silent. There was no help after all.

"Then...we have no choice," said Maria. "We have to take one of them hostage."

"Well, we can try," replied Whisper. "Our old friends are here."

The sniper appeared out of nowhere and formed his rifle.

"Great, not this guy again!"

"Everyone, let me and Whisper deal with this guy," shouted Maria. "You guys just run!"

Taking a colt pistol she found in the shelter, Maria began to put the ammo in it.

"Gonna tell Aunt Mary about Uncle John! He claims he has the music, but he has a lot of fun," she sang in a crazy manner. "Oh, baby, yeah, baby! Oh, baby. I'm having me some fun tonight!"

"You've been listening to too much Lil' Richie, have you," laughed Whisper.

"I heard it on my mob boss's radio. But enough talk. I'm Long Tall Sally! I'm so sweet! I got everything that Uncle John need! I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun!"

The sniper aimed his rifle at the two, and fired a large plasma grenade at them. They leaped in opposite directions and fired their guns back at him. The sniper rolled out of the way and continued firing at the girls with his rifles.

"Is that all you got?!" shouted Whisper. She ducked when the sniper threw what looked like shuriken at her face.

The sniper roared as he charged and grabbed Whisper by the arm and tossed her to the ground.

"Whisper!" screamed Breeze. She ran in to stop the fight, but Shadow blocked her. "What are you doing?!"

"This is their fight," he said. "I know it sucks, but we gotta trust them. Besides, Whisper can take care of herself."

Breeze cursed at him for his sense of honor. Back at the fight, Whisper got back on her feet and rubbed her head, which was now bleeding on the side. Growling, she picked up her gun and fired at the sniper when he broke his rifle into two cannons again.

"Come at me!" she screamed.

He fired at the girl again, missing every time. He didn't see the Italian woman leap from a tree, jump onto him and stab his abdomen with a large knife.

"This is for Raimundo!"

The sniper tossed her off his body and slammed her into the ground with a pile drive. She coughed up blood as she felt her lungs ache. Whisper roared in rage as she grabbed Maria's knife and jumped onto his shoulders and stabbed his chest repeatedly. She was going to stab his heart, when the alien grabbed her by her arm and yanked her off her body. There was a loud popping sound as she fell to the ground. Hissing in pain, she looked down at her arm, only to find it bent in an awkward angle; it was dislocated.

"Cazzo!" she cursed in Italian. "Great. Now I'm sounding like Mari - AUGH!" The sniper grabbed her by the throat she was still able to hold the knife in her other arm. With one swipe, she impaled his hand all the way through. Shrieking in pain, he let her go. As she tried to recollect herself, the sniper pulled the knife out of her hand and tossed it aside.

"Clever little sneak," he said in Maria's voice.

"Don't...you..talk...like...that," growled Whisper, grabbing her gun again. "EVER!"

That's when the sniper pressed a few buttons on his left gauntlet. Suddenly, as if they had minds of their own, they started flying over to her and started shooting.

"Persistent bastard!"

Suddenly, she heard a loud clanging sound. Maria was pressing her knife against the sniper's wrist blade.

"I'm gonna have me some fun tonight!" Maria sang as she slashed at her opponent.

The Shadow Warriors watched in awe and concern as they saw their friends in battle. So far, no one was winning. Maria crossed her knife with the sniper's wrist blades, and pressed hard. However, his size and strength still was superior. With a mighty shove, he pushed Maria away. Distracted, Maria never saw the sniper stab her in the gut with the wrist blade.

"NO!" everyone screamed.

Maria slumped to the ground, and never moved again. The sniper turned to face Whisper now. Whisper screamed in rage as she punched and kicked him in the face, gut and loins. Nothing seemed to affect him. All he did was stagger back a little, but there was no real damage. Finally, he grabbed her good arm and brought her to her knees. But just as he was about to decapitate her with his blade, his world went dark. His body slumped down, dead. Mohammed held his rifle in front of him; its barrel hole smoking. Whisper ran over to Maria's body and looked her over.

"No," she whimpered. "Someone get me one of those crystals!"

"We don't have any," admitted Shadow.

"Ah," said Maria. "It's alright. I don't mind dying. I've been waiting for death for a long time now. I've been nothing but an embarrassment to my parents for a long time now. Hey, my dad did say I should just drop dead that night I visited him at that hospital. Looks like he got his wish. You will tell him this right?"

Whisper shook her head frantically. "No! Don't leave us! Don't you dare!"

"Too late...you silly girl...see you on the other side..."

Whisper broke down into sobs, but she still closed Maria's eyes. Then she said, standing up, "Vai, amico, libero da fardelli e paure. Requiescat in pace."

"I'm sorry," said Breeze softly. "I really am."

"It doesn't matter. I know one thing now." Whisper paused. "The last one is mine! They will all pay for what they did to us!"

"But your arm!" exclaimed Mohammed.

"Fuck my arm! I can still fight with one appendage! Now are you idiots going to stand there, or are we getting off this god-forsaken planet?"

There was silence, then Shadow said, "We're going home. There's only one of them left. And we know he'll be the hardest of them all."

"Don't worry," said Dusk. "We'll be ready for him."


	11. Chapter 11

The Shadow Warriors and Mohammed stopped to catch their breath under a large tree. They had been walking for what felt like...they lost track of time a long time ago, let's just leave it like that. They knew one thing though, the last of the hunters was now hot on their trail. And right now, they had no plans. Nothing. They had truly met their match. Shadow seemed to be taking it the worst. Underneath his cracked glasses, his eyes formed dark circles, even though he had been getting enough sleep; stress was killing him. A twig snapped nearby and he slashed at it. Nothing.

"You know," Reaper said. "This is probably what the hunter wants us to be know: tired, exhausted, weak. Prey that might not have a chance to fight back."

"We're boned," Shadow grumbled. "Rudolph was right. Every time those things die, they adapt. The one chasing us probably has a bead on us right now, spying on us with a sniper rifle, or, or, or a grenade launcher! No, I bet he's out there camping with a shot gun trying to get a bead on us!" He sounded like he was going ballistic. A quick slap from Breeze shut him up.

"Don't you dare go crazy on us like that old man!" she screamed. "You hear me? Start doing that again, and I will kill you where you stand!"

"Breeze!"

Suddenly she broke down sobbing. "I'm sorry! I'm losing it! I haven't eaten anything since the sniper chased us out! I need food!"

"Hey, what are we?" asked Red Crosshairs angrily gesturing to his friends. "Chopped liver? We're hungry too!"

"I know," Shadow sighed. "I'm sorry. Looks like we lost." Everyone was speechless. "Don't give me those looks, you nitwits! I'm all out of ideas!"

"There's always Mac's idea," Mohammed suggested. Everyone turned to face him.

"What do you mean?" asked Whisper.

"Take the one chasing us as a hostage and force him to get us off this planet."

"If we can get close to him," Sam retorted. "We can't even get close to him!"

"Why not just blast him with fire like the last one?"

"His powers can put a strain on his heart," explained Shadow. "And after that transformation he pulled off, he's going to have to not to use his powers for a long time."

Mohammed paused. "Well, there's always..."

BOOM! The tree they were under started to give way and finally collapsed. Standing over the stump was the predator, armed and ready to kill.

"Oh, come on!" screamed Sam. "How did you find us so quick?!"

"Run for your lives!" screamed Breeze.

That was all they can do at this point. All the while dodging plasma bolts coming from the cannon mounted on the predator's shoulder. Suddenly, Whisper screamed as she found herself wrapped and bound in a steel net. The predator held the net gun in his hands and started pulling her in towards him. To make matters worse, the net was also as sharp as barbed wire; the more Whisper struggled, the more it constricted around her. What she said next was something no one would think she would say: "Help me! Please!"

Sam, risking cardiac arrest, rushed over to Whisper and used just a tiny bit of his powers to free her. But as they started running, Sam suddenly clutched his heart and collapsed.

"Sam!" Whisper screamed.

"Go! I'll slow him down!"

Whisper wanted to argue, but a plasma bolt changed her mind and she took off running. Meanwhile, Sam rolled onto his back and looked up at the predator looking down at him. "Go on," he said to the alien. "Kill me. Get it over with!"

The alien hunter looked down at him, and grabbed him by the throat. Then... "No."

Sam was dropped onto his rear, and was left confused and speechless. "What?"

"No," repeated the predator as he continued pursuing the others.

Sam grabbed a nearby tree and used it to support himself as he got onto his feet. "What was that all about?" He felt the cold steel of a gun's barrel press against his neck.

0000

"Where's Sam?!" screamed Shadow as he and his friends paused to catch their breaths.

"His heart," panted Whisper. "It gave out."

"WHAT?!" shouted everyone.

"He used his powers to free me from a barbed wire net."

Everyone was silent. Then Shadow slammed his fist against a rock. "Damn it, you fool!"

"Hey!" screamed Reaper. "He sacrificed himself to save our friend! Don't blame him!"

"I'm not! Whisper, why did you get caught?!"

The female warrior made a shocked face under her mask and hat. "Excuse moi?!"

"Why didn't you jump out of the way?!"

"That hunter took me by surprise! I didn't even see it coming!"

"All those years of training under Question," Shadow screamed. "and it still wasn't enough?"

"QUIET!" screamed Breeze, clapping her hands loudly. "My god, what are we? Children at a playground? We've faced worse than this guy, and we're going to let him tear us apart?!"

"Breeze," her fiance sputtered. "We just dropped a notch on the fucking food chain, man!" He was slapped again, this time even harder.

"Don't you go there, Shadow! You're starting to become a lunatic! You didn't act like this when we found out that Adrian and Trigon 'brought us together' when we all first met! Jesus Christ, we beat the devil himself months ago, and you didn't act like this!"

"And we let Cyrus and Marcas' father get away!"

"Leave my father out of this," Red muttered.

"Oh, yeah?" Breeze shouted at Shadow. "Then why did you let him go on his own, when we had a real problem back home?!"

"This is why I don't like married couples," commented Mohammed to Whisper. "All they do is nag."

"You're not helping doc. Just shut up and let them duke it out. They'll stop."

"I don't even know why I..." started Shadow, but he stopped.

"Don't know you what?!" screamed Breeze, but there was no response. "Jayden Warney, what is it?!"

His eyes were focused on something else. Everyone followed the direction of his eyes. There was the predator walking right over them. The red beam was focused on Breeze's head.

"Duck!" screamed Whisper.

Everyone obeyed and a plasma bolt blasted through a tree. Running off again, the Shadow Warriors immediately stopped when they faced the edge of a cliff at the bottom of the cliff was a river.

"Want to make that bet Sam and Raimundo made?" asked Shadow to Breeze.

"Just jump!" she shouted.

Everyone obeyed, but before Mohammed could follow them, he felt a hand grab him and throw him from the cliff. The predator walked over to him, but the doctor wasn't going down without a fight. He aimed his rifle at him...

0000

Down below, at the river's edge, the Shadow Warriors were coated in mud as they struggled to crawl their way out of the cold water, but the mud on their bodies made them colder still.

"And I thought Mr. Freeze's ice lab was cold!" shivered Ronin.

A loud splashing sound froze everyone in their tracks. They turned around and to their horror, the predator was rising out of the water. Something was funny, though. His appearance seemed to be fading in and out like TV static before he fully materialized. Everyone remained frozen where they were and readied themselves for death. But it never came. Instead, the predator walked off in another direction.

"What just happened?" Breeze whispered.

"Remember what the old man said?" hushed Whisper. "These things can track down people by following their heat signatures. This cold mud hid our signatures!"

"Now I know how these guys were able to find us so easily!" said Red. "Sam's heat signature is greater than a normal human being's since he is a demigod of fire!"

"Which means," said Shadow grinning. "We now have an advantage. Everyone, slather yourselves in this stuff!"

Grabbing handfuls of the dirt, the Shadow Warriors smeared themselves in it; the males even took off their shirts and covered their bare chests with it. Breeze and Whisper kept their bras on as they coated their upper bodies.

"Ally?"

Breeze turned around when she heard her name. Shadow was there, looking sorry. "What is it, Jayden?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "For what I said. I really am going crazy, am I? Hell, I must be a poor choice of a fiance. I must be the worst man you've ever met." She grabbed her by the neck and pulled him up to her face. She smiled.

"Sorry for being an ass myself," she said. "I didn't mean to..."

"No. I deserved it. And...I don't know what else to say."

"When this is all over, you owe me a kiss, lover boy."

Shadow smiled sheepishly.

"Hey," called out Reaper. "As much as I like having dirt on my toes and my nose, what are we going to do now?"

Shadow smiled. "We do it Mac's way."

0000

Elsewhere, the predator cleaned and polished the new skull and added it to his collection. He had lost his prey, but he won't do it again. He looked at the falcon probe, but it was still damaged. No time to repair it now. He sensed a battle coming on, and he wasn't going to accept defeat sitting down.

0000  
Mid afternoon...

With their guns now out of ammo, the Shadow Warriors had to use different methods for weapons. Ronin and Red grabbed flexible branches, a bunch of thin vines, sharp rocks and smaller twigs and constructed bows and arrows for themselves. Breeze grabbed a long branch and a sharp rock and with some vines, she tied them together to make spears. She wasn't satisfied with one. She made more. Reaper found a smooth stone and used it to sharpen his scythe with confidence in his eyes.

Elsewhere, Whisper was placing a vine tripwire and attached a bunch of knives to it. Then she mounted the string with the knives onto a tree. She plucked the string with her finger and the knives fell down. With her trap a success, she placed them back on the tree, confident it would work.

Shadow and Breeze tied a vine to a large log, then threw the other end of the vine over a branch. Breeze tied the vine to a handcrafted tent spike and plunged it into the ground. After that, Shadow used his Adonis fueled strength to pull the log up. With the spike holding the vine, it remained up in the air or at least until someone cuts the vine.

"I never thought we would have to use primitive methods to take this guy down," muttered Ronin, then he sighed. "I miss technology."

"Me too," Whisper replied. "I miss TV, video games, computers, IPads. You know geek stuff."

Everyone laughed, but deep down, they knew they were in for the fight of their lives.

0000  
Late afternoon...

Shadow gripped his sword tightly in his hands. He was positioned in a tree not to far from his friends. Red, armed with his bow, aimed at a large figure moving towards the area they set up their traps. With a yell, Shadow jumped down and landed on it, and pinned it down. He pointed his sword at its throat, but got a surprise. "Mac?!" It was true, there was Mac, looking up at him with shock. And what does he ask?

"Man, why the fuck are you all covered in mud?"

"I'm with you," said Sam, coming out of the bushes. "You look like jungle warriors."

"SAM!" He turned around and got the mother of all group hugs.

"Too tight," he wheezed. "Too tight!

"What happened?!" screamed Whisper with joy. "I thought you were dead!"

"Strangest thing really. The hunter just let me go, and that's when Mac found me."

"Let you go?" asked Marcas. "Why?"

"He wasn't fit to fight," said Ronin. "His heart condition means he is unfit to fight and thus would make him an unworthy game. These guys really do have a sense of honor."

"Honor or not," said Whisper angrily. "They still killed our friends. We have to get off this planet!"

"You still didn't answer my question," said Mac, tapping his gun on his heel. "Why are you caked in mud?"

"Well, it was the only way we could think of to hide our heat signatures," said Shadow.

"Hide them?" Mac sounded confused.

"Yeah. If these things can track down people by finding their heat signatures, then covering out bodies in cold mud can be the best hiding place."

Mac then turned to face Sam and smiled. Sam looked at him, confused. "What?"

"Nothing...fish bait."

"Excuse me?!" screamed Sam. "No way am I...!"

"Actually," said Reaper. "I think Mac might be on to something."

"Huh?!"

Sam's friend just grinned at him. "Sam's heat signature will make the perfect bait for the hunter to find us and lure him into our traps!"

Sam looked around, facing nothing but faces with grinning teeth. "You're insane! You're all mad!"


	12. Chapter 12

Up in the tree tops, Mac was caked in mud along with the others, though he did not like the cold and it did not help that it was now nighttime. To ignore the cold, he started humming a tune while he placed ammo clips in his gun. Red Crosshairs was nearby when he heard him and he recognized it as the Louis Armstrong song, Wonderful World. "Why did you come back," he asked Mac finally.

"I found it, Marcas," he replied. "The hunter's camp; north of here. You would not believe the equipment these guys have. Guns unlike any other, robotic cameras, and a ship; it's all surrounded by traps."

"Why traps?"

Mac looked at Red with a frown. "The hunter must have prepared for an event in which he and his friends get killed. They rigged their stuff so no one gets off this planet alive."

"So, if we kill the hunter," theorized Red. "We may never get home. This just keeps getting better and better." Mac nodded. "You still didn't answer my question. Why did you come back?"

"I couldn't find the hunters. I figured they would be coming for you, so I went back to the shelter. All I found was charred corpse and Maria's body."

"They got them along with Mohammed."

Mac shook his head. "Oh, well."

"Oh, well?!" spat Red. "That's all you have to say after they got killed?!"

"They are not my concern. I didn't really care about them anyway."

Red started shaking with anger. "Selfish man."

"Call me what you want. It doesn't matter when you're dead." Mac resumed humming his song to himself, then said, "When I found Sam suffering a heart attack, I had to kick him to wake him up. Didn't want him to be lost to you. You treat him like a brother."

"We're family," replied Red. "Of course we treat him like that."

"Well, I don't know what that's like. What with my folks being gunned down by some customers."

"Oh, yeah," Red said to Mac, nodding. "Your black market business you mentioned days ago. Why did those 'customers' kill your family?"

He laughed. "Let's just say I didn't like them from the moment I saw them. So, I gave them worthless guns; the broken kind as a joke. I took their money and re-located, but they somehow found me. Gunned the place and my family down. Good thing they didn't take the money back."

"Your family was killed and all you can think of is your money?!" shouted Red, but instantly covered his mouth. He didn't want to blow his cover.

"When your other greatest possessions are all gone," Mac explained. "You can only cling to one thing in life."

"Not a philosophy I will follow," scoffed Red, but Mac didn't care. Then he asked him, "What are you going to do when we get back home?"

The dark-skinned man thought it over, then said, "I'll probably retire from being a black market merchant and become a gun store owner. It's the only thing I know these days."

"You can't get away from weapons, can you?" Red laughed.

"Just like you won't get away from being Red, Marcas," agreed Mac, smiling. Then he sang out loud, "I see skies of blue and clouds of white."

"The bright, blessed day, the dark, sacred night," Red joined in, then sang together with him, "And we think to ourselves, what a wonderful world."

0000

Sam was perched up on a tree with Shadow by his side. Shadow could see on the look of the demigod's face that he was not happy of being bait. But he was concerned about one thing. "How's your heart? Does it still hurt?" Sam shook his head. "Can you use your fire one more time?" Sam nodded. "Okay. Get ready."

Sam ignited his gauntlets and pointed upwards towards the sky. In his mind, Shadow heard drums beating off in the distance, getting louder and louder every second. The drums of war. His eyes glowed amber with Adonis, then with one hand, touched Sam's gauntlets. Activating both their powers, a powerful firestorm burst out of the gauntlets. At that moment, Shadow opened his mouth and bellowed a loud, long battle yell that echoed throughout the jungle. There was an eerie silence. No one made any movements. The flames died down and Sam rested himself. Shadow waited...and waited...and waited...Then he finally heard what he had been wanting to hear: a loud bellow that sounded like an animal roaring.

"Come to Jayden," he said. "I know you're out there."

"Shadow?" Sam asked him.

"He's here." Shadow didn't see it, but he knew the predator was in their trap. "Drop!"

The air swished as arrows flew in all directions and a giant log fell onto the ground with a loud crash. The Shadow Warriors jumped down from their perches and landed onto the ground, aiming their arrows and spears at nothing. Or was there nothing? Immediately, the predator's camouflage dropped and he revealed himself, kneeling and bleeding due to the arrows in his body.

"You're not going anywhere," snarled Breeze. "Unless you get us off this planet."

He said nothing.

"Silent type, eh," hissed Ronin. "We'll see about..."

He stopped when he heard the predator making a gurgling sound. It was hard to make out why he was making that noise. Then... "Do you think I'm stupid?" he asked in various voices.

Silence. That was the sound being heard. It broke when the predator pressed a few buttons on his left gauntlet, making it glow blue. Suddenly, everyone felt an electric shock flow through their bodies and were sent flying. Shadow fell into a stream with a splash. He got up and out of the water, only to get grabbed by the throat by his alien enemy. He looked down at his enemy with malice in his eyes, then activated his Adonis powers, giving the predator such a shock. With no mercy, he delivered a series of punches onto every part of the armor covered body, denting it and breaking some parts off. With a good, hard kick, Shadow sent the predator flying, and he watched as he vanished over a line of trees. He'll be back. He was sure of it. Shadow rejoined his comrades, still recovering from the blast.

"Now what?" asked Breeze, brushing herself off.

"We go north," Shadow replied. "There's no way he'll fall for another trap. Besides, he'll be waiting at the base."

"How do you know?" asked Ronin, scratching his head.

"Because he knows that's where we want to go."

0000

Following Mac, the Shadow Warriors dragged their feet through the jungle as the night grew longer. The stars and planets above were fireflies against a black screen, glowing beautifully as they shined their might. It was almost beautiful. But this was no time for sight-seeing. After what felt like hours of walking, the Shadow Warriors, tired, foot sore and starving, finally came to a clearing. A loud bellow seemed to follow them, but they were in no rush. They knew their opponent would be waiting. Abruptly, the bellowing stopped. The air seemed to change now. Where there was once the presence of something primal watching them, came the scent of blood lust.

"We're here," Mac said finally. Down below in a valley was the base, and just as Mac described it, there was technology, weapons and (to everyone's delight), a ship far more advanced than human's. Just before they could say a word, the Shadow Warriors were pushed down the hill and into the site of the camp. There stood the predator, armor damaged and wounds healed (no doubt a result of the healing crystals).

"Now what?!" shouted Whisper.

No response. The predator's eyes instead focused on Shadow.

"What?" Shadow asked.

The alien said nothing. Instead, he tossed his weapons to the ground and stripped himself of his armor. Then he placed a hand to the back of his mask and removed an oxygen pipe. He slowly removed his mask and tossed it to the ground. Whisper, Ronin, Sam and Breeze screamed in horror. The others cringed in disgust. His face was unlike they had ever seen in their lives. He had small yellow eyes, a wide forehead, a mouth full of piranha-like teeth and with insect-like mandibles.

"You..." said Shadow.

"Are one..." Mac said.

"Ugly mother fucker!" Reaper said.

The predator said nothing. Instead he posed himself for battle.

"So what?" asked Sam. "We can take this guy on!"

"Just be careful," Shadow warned his friends.

Everyone surrounded the alien. Sam was the one who delivered the first punch, but he was grabbed by the arm and tossed to the ground. Sam was not done, though. He fired blasts of of fire from his palms and at his enemy, but the alien tipped backwards and ducked so low, a limbo man would be jealous. He got back up and punched Sam square in the face. The force of the blow cracked Sam's nose bone. Bleeding, he got back up and delivered a series of punches and kicks to the predator, then grabbed his bare shoulders. "Big mistake removing your armor!" he shouted, preparing to burn the predator's skin. However, his world went black after the predator delivered a powerful headbutt and knocked him out cold.

"Oy!" The predator turned around and faced Breeze and Whisper. "No, Whisper," Breeze scolded. "You're not fighting with me!"

"Why?!" shouted Whisper.

"Your arm. You're not..."

"Don't say I'm not conditioned to fight, bitch! I can fight this guy with one arm!"

Whisper charged at the predator and kicked him repeatedly in the gut and chest. With her good arm, she grabbed the knife in her belt and jumped onto his chest, making him fall. She tried to stab him, but he grabbed her hand and prevented her from harming him, though she was inching close to his left eye. Suddenly, she felt an indescribable pain and she fell to the ground. The predator had twisted her hand and snapped her wrist. He was ready to kill her when he was blasted off his feet by a strong wind.

"Stay away from her!" shouted Breeze, using her air elemental powers to create a miniature cyclone.

The predator got back up on his feet and charged towards her, but she trapped him in a wind tunnel of skin-shredding winds. Still, the predator drudged on towards her, intending to finish her off. Breeze blew winds up to 10,000 miles per hour, forcing him to pound his feet deep into the ground and drag on towards her.

"Damn! He doesn't know when to quit!"

To her horror, the predator was now just inches away from her. Change in plan! She flew up into the air and blasted winds at him, but he dodged at every attack she sent. Finally, he jumped up a tree and lunged straight for her. With a tremendous punch, cracked her nose and knocked her unconscious. The predator faced the others and gave a snarl as if to say, "Who's next?"

Ronin faced the predator head on, sword at the ready. He slid between the predator's legs and sliced them at the ankles, bringing the alien hunter to his knees. Distracted, he had no time to prepare for the stab that was coming for him. But at the last second, he stopped the stab midway by allowing Ronin's sword to impale him through his left hand. To Ronin's shock, he used the sword as a lever and not only did he pull the sword out, he lifted him off the ground. The predator slammed him into the ground like a hammer and knocked the wind right out of him. With a mighty punch from his opponent, Ronin was knocked out cold.

Dusk slammed at the predator with his tonfas, but they were cast aside by the larger warrior like they were toys. Activating his Adonis power, he rushed towards the predator and punched his vital blood vessels with such ferocity that he coughed up green glowing blood. Then he pinned the predator down punched him multiple times in the face. All the anger built up this week had reached his boiling point. Suddenly, the predator grabbed Dusk by the arm and brought him into his chest. Dusk screeched in pain as the predator crushed him in an organ smashing bear hug. Then he let go. Dusk wheezed for air, but never got the chance as the predator grabbed him and smashed his face into a tree. Dusk went down for the count.

Reaper finally faced the predator, scythe in hand. With a mighty slash, he sliced the predator's chest, squirting blood everywhere. He tried to go for his head, but the predator jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a blow that shook the ground. Yanking the scythe out of the ground, Reaper chased after his opponent, cutting down trees and sending bushes flying in the process. That's when the predator had an idea. Grabbing one of the sliced bits of trees, he threw it directly at Reaper's face. He slashed it with easy, but was shocked when he saw his opponent grab the scythe and tried to pull at away from him.

"I won't let you have it!" Reaper shouted.

With good hard jerk, he managed to make one of the predator's hands lose its grip, and he inched the scythe's blades close to the predator's face. Suddenly, he felt his opponent kick him in the loins. Hard. "Kumbaya!" he groaned. He fell flat on his face onto the ground. With one mighty kick to the head from the predator, Reaper lost consciousness.

An arrow flew toward the predator, but he caught it in his hand and snapped it in two.

"This guy is just like Batman," shouted Red Crosshairs. "He doesn't need weapons to fight!"

Unfortunately, he gave away his position. The predator gave a good, mighty kick to a tree and Red and Mac fell down, but not out. Getting up first, Mac open fired at his opponent, but the alien rolled out of the way and avoided the bullets. He suddenly slid behind Mac and grabbed him by his throat. Mac fired his gun wildly, but none of the bullets hit their target. The predator dropped him when an arrow fired through his stomach.

"Now I've got you!" shouted Red, aiming his bow at him.

One chance. Suddenly just as Mac was about to fire his gun, the predator grabbed him and instead of him being shot, Red got shot. The wounds weren't fatal, but they were enough to knock him flat on his ass. As for Mac, he ended up with a broken neck. Shadow rushed over to him.

"God damn, that hurts," Mac cursed.

"I'm sorry," apologized Shadow. "Not even my Adonis formula can help you now."

"Oh, well. Well, I guess that's life for you. One minute you're selling fake weapons to people you hate, the next, you're getting gunned down by aliens. Still, I have no regrets. I won't make some sort of mournful speech about what could have been. Or what my parents would think of me, or if I would either go to Heaven or Hell. I'm not that kind of man. Still, I got to say, these last minutes have been...dare I say, fun..." Then he closed his eyes and never woke up again.

"Good bye, Mac," Shadow said sadly. Then he looked up at the predator and frowned. "You messed with the wrong man, buddy. No more tricks, no more weapons. Just you, me and the Adonis. Let's see what you're made of, big boy." As he said this, Shadow tossed his weapons and mask aside and charged up his Adonis.

"Don't do it, Shadow!" shouted Dusk. "Even with my Adonis, he took me down! He's too powerful!"

Shadow just smiled. "Perfect."

The blooded warrior cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers. He had made it this far, and he was never going to back down, and neither was his opponent. He had to admit, he had faced one of the best challenges of his life. He will truly mount these warriors' skulls on his wall with full honors. If he died...he lived his life as a warrior and he still had his pride and honor. That was all that mattered now.


	13. Chapter 13

With a swift kick, Shadow sent the predator flying into a tree; he was still standing but a little stunned. He lunged towards the predator, charging up his Adonis for more strength. Firing lightning bolts from his palms, he hoped to fricassee the alien hunter where he stood. The predator performed a dodge roll and avoided getting electrocuted. He knew that he won't be able to get close to the human without getting shocked. He needed to get close, but how? Then he remembered that he didn't throw all of his weapons away. He swore he wouldn't use them ever again even in a dire situation, but in this case...

"What's wrong?" taunted Shadow. "Can't get close to me? Well, how about I come to you!"

Shadow sprinted towards his opponent, and prepared to ignite a bolt of electricity even more powerful than the previous one. The predator dodged just in time; the tree behind him was not so lucky. Then he saw an opening. Grabbing Shadow by the arm, he delivered a powerful, skull cracking head butt to Shadow's nose. There was a loud crack as Shadow felt his face. "Okay," he muttered. "You got the first strike. But I didn't show you how powerful I can be!" He sprinted again towards his opponent and delivered powerful blows to the chest. The predator felt every rib break with each punch. One chance. With a swift kick, he tripped Shadow, picked him up and threw him into a boulder. Shadow cursed as he got back onto his feet.

"I'll have your head!" he shouted.

The predator touched the handles of his cursed weapons still attached to his belt and pulled them out. They appeared to be two hooks with long sets of chains on the handles. The hooks glowed with a menacing purple aura as if they were alive. Shadow felt something evil about these weapons, but he didn't care; his anger was controlling him. He leaped up into the air and dive bombed toward his opponent, his body flickering and crackling with electricity. The predator spun one of the hooks like a lasso and when Shadow got close enough, he let it fly. Shadow felt an extreme pain unlike any other as the hook embedded itself into his abdomen. To his horror, the second hook was launched and it stabbed him in the left arm.

"What's...happening to me," Shadow said, dropping to his knees. "My strength is leaving me..."

The predator started to pull and tug on the hooks. To Shadow's horror, he saw an apparition of himself start to leave his body.

"My...soul...leaving..."

Charging up his Adonis, he grabbed the chains and pulled them hard. He wasn't going to let his opponent win, but he had to do something fast! Pulling hard, he felt his apparition return into his body, and that gave him enough strength to yank the hooks' chains and send the predator flying toward him. He punched the predator square in the face and the hooks flew off his body, making him slump to the ground.

"Hades..." he wheezed. "I recognize those hooks. You got the Claws of Hades? How did you do that?"

The predator got back up on his feet and twirled one of the hooks like a lasso again. He spoke again, using multiple voices. "I won them...from one of his apprentices."

Shadow got back up and shook himself, feeling his strength return to him. "Unfortunately for you, I am familiar with Greek mythologies and about their weapons. I can dodge any attack you got at me."

The predator snarled a little, indicating that he wasn't going to give up either. Shadow charged up his Adonis and sparks of lightning shot out of his finger tips. The predator swiped the air with his hooks, and three ghostly skulls appeared, blocking the electricity and giving him the opportunity to get close to Shadow. He slashed the hooks at Shadow's chest, creating a deep chest wound, then he wrapped the chains around Shadow's legs and started spinning him around. He spun so fast, Shadow thought he was going to vomit. Luckily, he didn't, but was tossed like a rag doll and sent flying into a boulder again.

"Okay," he snarled, dusting himself off. "Now I'm angry!"

The predator just roared at him. Shadow roared back and created a field of electricity around him. Then he floated high into the air. "Try and dodge this!" He formed spears of electricity using the lightning coming from his finger tips and fired them at the predator. One of them got lucky and struck him, forcing him onto his knees. He dodged just in time to avoid the second one. He had to be more careful, one more blast from that would truly kill him. He had to rely on his ranged attacks now. Swiping the air, he summoned the soul of a huge chimera beast. The soul breathed fire at Shadow, knocking him backwards, but the shield did not break. As the soul the predator summoned disappeared, Shadow fired more bolts of lightning at him at a faster rate, making it more hard for him to dodge.

"Summon as many souls as you want!," shouted Shadow. "You won't beat me!"

The next soul that the hooks summoned resembled something Shadow knew: one of Cerberus' spawn. The three headed hound leaped at Shadow and pinned him down, breathing fire on his body. As the soul disappeared, the predator saw that the shield was weakening. One last soul should do it. This soul would be the victim he used these hooks on for the first and last time. The soul burst out of the hooks and charged at Shadow. It constricted its long tail around his neck and strangled him. Then it opened it's mouth, revealing its second mouth and lunged the proboscis at his face, damaging his skull. As the soul disappeared, so too did the energy field. Shadow, weak, coughed up blood.

"Did I see that face somewhere before?" he thought. He broke out of his trance when he felt one of the hooks embed itself into his chest. "Oh, no you don't!" With a quick heave he lunged at the predator and grabbed the other hook and stabbed it in the chest. "Let's see how you like it, lizard man!" The predator started shrieking with pain as his soul started to leave him, but he tugged on the other chain, forcing Shadow's soul to come out of his body as well. Shadow felt his strength leaving him already, but he wasn't giving up. He gave the chain one hard jerk, forcing more of his opponent's soul out. Suddenly, his world went blank...

"JAYDEN!" screamed Dusk in horror.

The predator yanked his chain as well, literally, and the soul of Shadow was pulled out of his body. The husk dropped to its knees and plopped face first into the ground. The predator carefully pulled the hook embedded in his own chest out, careful not to hurt his soul in the process and he inspected the sphere that was his opponent's soul. Suddenly, he felt pain enter his chest. A blade ran through his body, spilling out multiple blood. Too weak from his battle with Shadow, he never had a chance to dodge. He turned around and saw Dusk holding Shadow's sword in his hands.

"You won't take anyone from my family," he snarled at the alien hunter. "I don't care about some stinking honor. My family comes first!"

The predator turned around swiftly and slashed the young man with his finger nails. Distracted, he never realized that Dusk was now racing towards the sphere he dropped. Dusk grabbed it and rushed toward Shadow's body. He placed the sphere into his chest, and watched it fade into his body. But he didn't get up. Dusk felt like he was going to go into hysterics.

"Jayden," he whispered. "Come on, get up! We need you! Ally needs you!"

No response. Dusk beat his brother's body up, weeping and gibbering accusations at him and himself, blaming Shadow for not asking for help when he needed it, and blaming himself when he should have jumped in. Forget this hunter's stupid honor; his own honor was different than these alien savages!

"...stop..."

He ceased his wailing when he heard Shadow's voice. He looked down and saw Shadow looking up at him, but none too pleased.

"Why did you get in his way? He won."

"I don't want to stay in this jungle," cried Dusk. "I want to go back to where there's civilization! I want my family back in one piece!"

"Why did you sneak attack him," Shadow asked. "You could have waited for him to get ready."

"I did it before, and I'll do it again. Besides, you would have done the same thing if I was in you shoes right now."

Shadow thought that over, then said, "Probably." He heard a gurgling sound, then walked over to his dying opponent. Then he said, "What the hell are you?"

The only thing that came out of the predator's mouth was his own voice, "What...the hell...are you?"

"Just tell us how to get us off this planet, lizard man," snarled Dusk.

The predator pressed a few buttons on his gauntlet, then pointed to the ship, then at his weapons. "Go...take it..." Dusk picked up the predator's shoulder cannon and Wrist blades and attached it to his belt. Shadow put his costume back together and found his own weapons. The two were just about to carry their friends onto the ship, when heard something beeping. They looked down and saw the gauntlet flashing red, and numbers in an alien language began counting down. They didn't understand the language, but they knew instinctively what it was going to do.

"Get everyone on the ship now!" shouted Shadow, frantically grabbing Reaper, Ronin and Red's bodies. Dusk grabbed Ally, Whisper and Sam and he, along with Shadow, dragged their friends towards the now open ship. Placing them in seats, the two realized something important.

"How do we launch this ship?!" shouted Dusk. His question was somewhat answered when the doors closed and he and Shadow felt the ship rise into the air. "Guess he must have it on autopilot." He heard a loud, thundering explosion from outside. "Why did he blow himself up?"

"Honorable suicide," answered Shadow. "When a warrior fails in battle, he must protect his honor and dignity, so he commits suicide. Samurai do it whenever they lose a battle by stabbing themselves in the gut and having an ally decapitate them."

"Ew. Well, at least the way, this guy goes out will be painless." He remained silent before finally saying, "What do we do now?"

Shadow shrugged his shoulders. "Let's look around. There has to be a bridge, or a cockpit around here somewhere."

0000

After walking around the ship, the brothers finally found a sleeping quarters and placed their unconscious friends in the bunks. Leaving their friends to sleep, they eventually found the cockpit, but without any knowledge of how to fly a ship with this sort of technology, they decided to not touch anything. Besides, the ship was already on their way to earth, judging by the sound of what the fallen warrior said.

"What are we going to do when we get home, Jayden?" Dusk asked finally.

"Don't know, Jason," admitted Shadow, fiddling with his gun. "This will make one hell of a story. Still, it would have been nice to have those other guys with us. Maria, Mohammed, Raimundo, Mac. They would have been smiling like the Joker when they would have been on this ship."

"You know, we didn't even ask what their last names were."

"They didn't ask our last names, so there's no point in asking theirs. Besides, I'm sure they would have been happy to see us go. And we didn't let their sacrifices go in vain."

"What about Rudolph?" Dusk asked.

Shadow shook his head. "He was just a crazy old coot. Let's not talk about him that often."

"Okay. Hey, I'm gonna go to sleep. Wake me up when we get there."

Shadow nodded, but soon, after a few minutes of doing nothing, but watching the stars, he too drifted off to sleep.

0000

The Justice League had surrounded the ship just hours before it landed in Metropolis. People were already trying to get a closer look at it and some even tried to take pictures of it, but they were blocked off by the police.

"What are we going to do with it?" asked the Flash, carefully inspecting the thing and worried about something, "I don't want little green men to jump out at us and take over our bodies." He stopped when he felt a familiar presence. "Oh, no offense "J'ohnn."

"None taken," the Martian Manhunter grumbled.

"I've seen many alien crafts," Superman said. "But none like this."

"I have," Batman said, causing all the other League members to look at him with shock. "A long time ago."

"Where?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Wait," Martian Manhunter interrupted. "I can sense familiar life forces on that craft. It's..." His eyes widened. "It's Jayden and his friends..."

"What?!" exclaimed the Green Lantern. "But they disappeared almost..."

"I know, John," Wonder Woman interrupted. "But here they are!"

"Get that thing open now!" shouted Superman. The ship doors opened by themselves.

"I guess it heard you?" asked Flash, just as confused as everyone.

A figure stepped out of the ship, and everyone prepared for a mind eating alien to burst out...but it was only Shadow that walked out. "We come in peace," he joked, but then fell flat on his face. Batman rushed toward his son, only to discover that he had passed out. Superman used his X-ray vision to view the ship. "The others are all there," he concluded.

"Get them out of there," ordered Batman to the other League members. He turned to his unconscious son and carried him to the Batmobile. Placing him in his seat, Batman rushed back to the alien craft to see the League bring out the other Shadow Warriors.

"Why is Gauntlet wearing this wacky armor?" the Flash asked, inspecting Sam's new armor. Batman's suspicions were confirmed. But before he could say anything, he heard a loud beeping sound. Everyone heard it too. It didn't take an expert on alien technology to figure out what was going to happen.

"Get everyone back!" shouted Superman. "It's going to blow!"

The crowd and the police dispersed while the Justice League picked up the unconscious Warriors and carried them off to a safe distance. There was a loud boom, but no explosion. Instead, there was an implosion and the ship vanished as it shrunk into nothingness. The press was going to have a field day with this, but the Justice League was able to send everyone home.


	14. Chapter 14

Jayden was the first to wake up with a start. He found himself in a hospital bed, no longer wearing his Shadow costume, but a patient smock, and to his sides, all the people he had traveled with him were there too, sleeping like babies. He realized he had company in front of him "What do you want, Batman?"

"Nice to see you too, Jayden," the Batman replied. "You and your friends gave us quite the scare. Talia was almost in hysterics when her foot soldiers didn't find you. She became verbally abusive to everyone, even her own father."

Jayden laughed. "It's about time she stopped being daddy's little girl." Batman frowned at him. "What? I've only been gone for a few days. Besides, she should have known we would be okay, even if we were way over our heads against these aliens."

"Jayden, do you even know what day it is?"

He thought about this. "Friday?"

Batman shook his head. "You and your went missing over a month ago."

Jayden's eyes widened. "What?! What happened to...?"

"Your friends down on earth did well on their own, but it wasn't the same, according to Mystico. They nearly lost a few battles while you were gone."

Jayden felt something heavy on his heart, almost as if guilt had taken a physical form. "Oh, god..."

Batman continued, "They were almost in hysterics when you were brought into the med-lab of the Watch Tower."

"And mom?"

"Talia was in tears. I rarely saw her like that." Jayden swore he saw a tear drip from Batman's stern eyes.

But it was Jayden who finally crumbled. "Oh, Bruce! I actually thought I was going to die this time! I was so scared! I tried to hide it, but I was really scared!" He wept, but soon felt a pair of arms wrapped around him. It was Ally, fully awake, and fully aware of what Jayden had said. He didn't even check to see if his friends were truly asleep, or simply pretending.

"It's okay, Jayden," hushed Ally, using the same voice she used to comfort that frightened soldier back on that planet. "It's okay." Jayden did nothing, but continued to sob, still hugging his fiance.

0000

Sam, Jayden and Jason placed the weapons and the armor they had won in the final battle in glass boxes, each large enough to fit them. With a press of a button, the boxes lowered into the floor, and out of the hands of any unwanted people. It was Batman who suggested not to use them anymore. They left the trophy room of their penthouse, when they were greeted by three familiar faces: Batman, Superman and (for some strange reason), Talia al Ghul.

"Why are you here, mom?" asked Jayden

Batman slowly pulled out a familiar weapon. A javelin that belonged to one sort of alien.

"Is that...?"

"I faced the hunters that you and your friends encountered more than once a long time ago. At the time I didn't know it, but their history is tied to ours."

"They go by many names depending on what planet you live on," explained Superman. "Alien hunter, savage, beasts, brutes. But, in their native tongue, they are called Yautja."

"You didn't answer my question," snarled Jayden, pointing his mother. "Why are you here?"

"For the same reason as my grandfather. To teach you a little more of human history. That is why he asked me to send you this." She held out a set of scrolls, stone tablets with writings on them and books, probably as old as the Mayan pyramids, or more.

"Why?" demanded Dusk.

"Because what you faced is only the tip of the iceberg for a bigger story than you could never know unless you know this."

Shadow thought it over, then nodded his head. "Alright. I'll check them out when I have the chance."

"By the way," asked Sam. "You said the aliens are called Yautja. What does that mean?"

Superman looked at him, then at Jayden and Jason and said one word.

"Predator."

0000

"This is recovery team EG9. We have completed the inspection. There's nothing at all. I repeat, the craft has been completely destroyed."

"And the weapons? The armor?"

"Negative. We can't even get past the firewalls in that security system. It could take at least years until the system falls."

"Pity. Recall all teams and return to base. We'll have to use a few more subtle methods to retrieve what we want."

"Yes, Mr. Weyland."

The communication went dead and Weyland faced his partner, Mrs. Yutani. "Well, that went nowhere," she admitted.

"It's alright," Weyland said, showing no defeat. "They can't keep their secrets locked up forever, and they can't hide behind the capes of the Justice League or the skirts of the League of Assassins."

"What do you suggest?" asked Yutani.

Weyland stood up. "Arrange a meeting with Warney. I want to inform him that we are now watching his every move even closer than before."

Yutani was in a panic at first. "You're going to tell him of the project?"

Weyland looked over at the specimen in the jar. It was white and slimy skinned, shaped like a spider, but with a long tail, and it prodded the unbreakable glass case with its proboscis. "No. I don't wish to spoil surprises. Besides, they need to trust us before we can tell him of our discovery."

"Good," sighed Yutani in relief. "But what if they disagree?"

"It's alright. I've already scheduled a meeting with Professor Strange; he should be in any moment."

"That's good to hear."

"Come, let's go watch the game before half time. I don't wish to miss the Keystone Patriots win this year. They're going to state this year."

"Typical men, loving baseball over women," giggled Yutani.

"We're not dating," said Weyland. "We're just business partners."

"Sure we are," said Yutani sarcastically. Weyland shook his head.

She and Weyland walked out of the communications room and down a hall, past the small, white serpentine specimens that hissed and snapped at them angrily in their cells.


End file.
